For example: Electrical Input Signals such as a Function Generator or a measurement device such as a flow meter or digital multimeter.

I work for a medical device manufacturer so we have a lot of measurement equipment but not many servers and have recently started using RQM.

We are investigating lab management and created test environments that so we can pick them when executing a test case, so we see some benefit of using lab management.

Because of regulations we need to have the original details of every piece of test equipment used for each test case maintained with the final result and execution record for traceability.

Our first issue is  that upon re-execution of a test case it is almost guaranteed some different pieces of equipment will be used rather than a whole different environment. (perhaps a different, unique function generator with different serial numbers and calibration dates) For example the device under test will stay the same but the exact accessories connected will differ. We see that if we alter an environment that the changes are propagated to completed tests using that environment, which is a problem for traceability.

Our second issue is our tests require so many different pieces of test equipment we see the list of environments becoming way too long.

Is there any advice on handling a large number of different test equipment while maintaining traceability?