Our biggest WATS UP yet
Test data put to work

This year’s WATS UP brought together a record number of participants. More than 120 test specialists, quality managers, R&D professionals, and electronics manufacturers from 15 countries joined us in Drammen for a full day focused on using test data to improve product quality and manufacturing performance.

Beyond the keynotes and practical sessions, WATS UP is about bringing people together, sharing experiences, learning from each other, and finding new ways to improve. It’s also an important opportunity for us to stay close to our customers, users, and partners and continue improving WATS together.

Three topics shaped WATS UP 2026

This year, WATS UP centered on three ways test data can help electronics manufacturers improve:

• Reducing manufacturing costs while improving quality
• Using AI to turn test data into faster, more accessible insights
• Getting more value from WATS and the test data already available

Reducing costs while improving quality

Engineering teams often turn to WATS to solve immediate technical problems, but the financial impact of those improvements can be easy to overlook.

At WATS UP, we looked at real examples of how test and manufacturing teams are using test data to improve quality and reduce costs as production scales.

As Tom Andres Lomsdalen, CEO of WATS, put it: “WATS is not simply a cost - it is a cost-saving tool.”

Putting a value on continuous improvement

Haldor Åsheim, Customer Success Manager at WATS, showed how manufacturers can quantify the value created through higher yield, fewer retests, and shorter test times.

One large electronics manufacturer used WATS to identify where improvements in its PCBA process would have the greatest impact.

Over four years, first pass yield increased from 83.5% to 96.4%, while test time was reduced by almost a minute and the retests per unit fell from 0.30 to 0.08. At the same time, annual test volume grew from 100,000 to 223,000 units.

At the higher production volume, the improvements translated into:

• 49,079 retests avoided
• 4,705 hours saved per year
• €470,500 saved per year

The example highlighted a simple point: as production scales, even relatively small improvements in yield, retest rates, and test time can add up to significant savings.

The keynote also highlighted costs that traditional ROI calculations can overlook. Defects become increasingly expensive the further they travel through production, while escalated failures can require time from operators, technicians, and engineers.

Looking at the full cost of poor quality can therefore give manufacturing teams a much clearer picture of the value of continuous improvement.

From AI-assisted analysis to AI agents

AI was another major theme at WATS UP 2026.

Jon Grenstad, AI Lead at WATS, presented the latest developments in WATS Alvea, our AI technology, and how large language models are changing the way engineers can interact with test data.

AI-assisted analysis isn’t new to WATS. WATS Alvea Suggestions already uses machine learning to help engineers identify where yield is being affected and narrow down potential root causes.

WATS Alvea Assistant takes the next step by letting users interact with their test data using natural language. Engineers can ask about common failures, yield drops, poorly performing products, and what’s driving those issues and get answers grounded in their WATS data.

The same tool-set is also available through the WATS MCP server, allowing external AI assistants such as ChatGPT and Claude to work with WATS data.

What comes next for AI in WATS?

The long-term goal is straightforward: anything a human can do in WATS, an AI should eventually be able to do.

Ola Reppe, Integration Architect at WATS, gave attendees a glimpse of what that could look like. In a proof of concept built on the WATS MCP, an AI agent analyzed 28 days of live production data for a product group.

Using WATS tools available today, the agent monitored production, investigated trends and issues, and produced recurring analysis without manually prepared exports or dashboards.

The experiment points toward AI that goes beyond answering individual questions and continuously helping engineers monitor, investigate, and understand what’s happening in production.

And the foundation for that is something WATS customers already have: structured, comparable test data.

Getting more out of WATS today

WATS UP wasn’t only about ROI and what comes next with AI.

A full lineup of practical sessions focused on helping users get more day-to-day value from WATS and their test data. Topics ranged from unit flow, retest and test step analysis to repair data, dashboards, asset management, integrations, AI-assisted converters, and WATS Cloud.

That practical value is at the heart of WATS UP: attendees should leave with something they can take back, put to work, and use to improve.

See you at WATS UP 2027

A big thank you to everyone who traveled to Drammen, shared experiences, asked questions, and contributed to the discussions and to the entire WATS team for making the day happen.

WATS UP 2026 was our biggest event yet. We’re already looking forward to bringing the WATS community together again next year.

Save the date: September 2, 2027.