Upskilling and Empowering the Test Engineering Team at EI Electronics
The Makkal Solution: Strategic Training and Framework Alignment
The Critical Challenge: Bridging the Skill Gap for Project Autonomy
EI Electronics recognized that its rapid growth and increasing project complexity were outpacing its internal team capabilities. While the test engineering team had foundational LabVIEW knowledge, they lacked the advanced skills and framework understanding necessary to achieve independence and drive internal project development efficiently.
Skill Deficiency: The team possessed fundamental LabVIEW skills but struggled with advanced concepts required for building sustainable, professional projects (e.g., robust error handling, state machine development).
Framework Underutilization: The company's existing, proprietary LabVIEW frameworks were not consistently understood or utilized by all team members, creating project inconsistencies and hindering collaborative development.
External Dependency: Engineers required frequent external support for project execution, limiting autonomy and creating a bottleneck for new project launches.
Redundant Effort: Lack of standardized practices led to engineers duplicating work, slowing down overall team productivity.
The Makkal Solution: Strategic Training and Framework Alignment
Makkal deployed a strategic, multi-faceted approach combining industry-standard certification training with customized, on-the-job application to maximize knowledge retention and immediate project impact.
Technical Approach | Strategic Implementation | Value Delivered |
Foundational Certification | Organized and delivered professional, off-the-shelf training, including NI LabVIEW Core 1 & Core 2, to solidify basic programming mastery across the team. | Established a consistent, high-quality knowledge base in LabVIEW fundamentals and best practices. |
Customized "Sandwich" Training | Integrated on-the-job, project-specific guidance between formal training modules. This applied new skills directly to EI Electronics' real projects. | Ensured immediate practical application of skills, turning theoretical knowledge into usable, project-ready code. |
Framework Enhancement & Education | Enhanced existing LabVIEW frameworks and provided deep-dive training to the entire team on framework utilization and contribution. | Promoted consistency and collaboration, enabling engineers to effectively utilize existing tools and minimize redundant efforts. |
Advanced Skill Roadmap | Created a clear professional development path, including future training in LabVIEW Core 3 and NI TestStand, to meet long-term business needs. | Ensured the team is future-proofed and ready to tackle increasingly complex, high-level automation challenges. |
Key Results and Business Outcome
Makkal's strategic upskilling initiative successfully transformed the team's capabilities, leading to measurable improvements in efficiency, quality, and autonomy.
Enhanced Proficiency: Engineers progressed to advanced skills in state machine development, robust error handling, and API creation, drastically improving the quality and sustainability of their code.
Achieved Self-Reliance: The team gained a high level of autonomy, significantly reducing the need for external involvement and accelerating the project execution lifecycle.
Improved Productivity: The team's ability to build and reuse standardized libraries based on the taught frameworks minimized redundant development efforts, increasing overall project throughput.
Future Autonomy: The team is now positioned to complete advanced training (Core 3 and TestStand) and will be fully capable of independently executing complex, mission-critical projects moving forward.
Makkal's commitment to upskilling elevated the EI Electronics test team from fundamental programmers to autonomous, advanced practitioners, significantly boosting self-reliance and project efficiency.