Abstract: A workstation for use in the assembly of component parts includes a computer terminal having a display and at least one input device, a test apparatus operatively coupled to the computer terminal, and an application program which generates a first display screen for display of an assembly procedure to be followed by an assembler on the display of the computer terminal and a second display screen for display of test results obtained by the test apparatus on said display of said computer terminal. In the case where at least one of multiple assembly steps includes a test function, the application program automatically performs the test function using the test equipment and inhibits display of a next assembly step in the event that results of the test function are outside predetermined parameters.

Abstract: A communications system includes a plurality of work stations and a relational database operatively linked therewith. Each of the workstations includes a computer terminal having a display and at least one input device, test apparatus operatively coupled to said computer terminal, and an assembly application program which generates a first display of an assembly procedure to be followed by an assembler on said display of said computer terminal and a second display screen for display of test results obtained by said test apparatus on said display of said computer terminal. The relational database stores data which is independent of the assembly program and which indicative of the assembly procedure used by the assembly application program. A data structure of the relational database includes an tracking table and an action table, in which the tracking table being used to link to data contained in the action table.

Abstract: The component parts for assembly of a device, such as the passive optical components of an optical amplifier, are automatically selected from among a supply of available component parts. Each component part has a performance parameter such as insertion loss associated therewith. Stored in a database memory are component part data for each component part of the supply of available component parts. The component part data are in a computer readable format and indicative of a type of each part and the performance parameter of each part. To obtain the selection of parts of the device for assembly, the component part data for a plurality of the available component parts is retrieved from the database, and the thus retrieved plurality of component part data are sorted according to at least the performance parameter of each retrieved component part data. At least one component part among the sorted component part data is selected based on a preset parameter.