Outsourcing in PCB field is an agreement in which one company hires another company to be responsible for a PCB related project completion. Outsourcing tasks, involving printed circuit board manufacturing, assembly, design, components, programming, functional testing and etc., to an electronics manufacturing services (EMS) provider allows original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to dramatically cut their fixed costs, while freeing up cash to invest in strategic initiatives, such as new product development or marketing. It also lets a company reduce labor costs by shrinking its direct work force.
Outsourcing PCB and Assembly Services
Many companies have in-house PCB design capability, and most of them no need outsource PCB layout design service. But when it comes to PCB assembly, there is a lot to talk about. Here is a break down of the most important points to consider when thinking about circuit board assembly services.
- A lower investment: PCB manufacturing machines, surface mount machines and quality inspection machines are a massive up-front investment. So are the costs in getting certified to manufacture printed circuit boards (PCBs) for vehicle and medical projects. And the new hires you’ll surely need will cost you in permanent, monthly salaries and social insurance. Without outsourced PCB assembly, you worry about none of that. Keep your operation small, and only worry about your recent employees.
- Facility savings: renting or leasing warehouse space can really drain your funds. That’s why your electronics manufacturing vendors can hold you parts in-house. You don’t have to find space for all that inventory. Your PCB manufacturer will take on the financial burden until the parts are shipped out. This cost reduction lets you invest somewhere else in your facility -R&D, marketing, you name it.
- Cost efficiency: your electronic manufacturing services provider should already have in place an established infrastructure and well-rehearsed operation. Why spend years attempting your own? A fabrication expert will already understand the inventory management factors that affect cost efficiency, such as short part life cycles, price fluctuations and design changes. Especially if you’re a startup with little capital, it’s easier to enlist experienced and well-run circuit board assembly services instead of trying to consolidate the process yourself.
- Rare expertise: the specialists will always do it better. Printed circuit board (PCB) assembly services are what the contract manufacturer (CM) focuses on day in, day out. They know the industry best and are already a step ahead of you in thinking about issues you didn’t even know about lead times, design flaws, conflict materials and intrinsic safety. Imagine your relief when you take a project to a PCB contractor and they spot a design problem before it goes to market. Now imagine that partner offering to help you redesign or refit a circuit board to more efficiently manufacture that product. This actually happens all the time with PCB assembly outsourcing.
- Being able to focus more on PCB design: A contracted company can take a bug burden off your hands. With an OEM’s collective hands and minds free, it can instead focus on engineering or another part of the business. Maybe your resources are better suited for marketing your product or trying to break into a new market.
- Shorter lead times: your PCB supplier (/contractor) will almost certainly have long-standing relationship with multiple component makers. The vendor will have an established supply chain with part brokers and other folks that may benefit your lead times. You and your facility, on the other hand, already have enough strain. It can take a large team and a lot of space to assemble circuit boards. If you have neither, you’re not going to get orders to customers very quickly. An electronics manufacturer, like MADPCB, with a sole focus on PCBs can knock out an order far faster than your company can.
- Higher capacity: Outsourced PCB assembly benefits capacity much in the same way it reduces lead times: a bigger team and more space to work with. Furthermore, a contractor will better recognize economy of scale. A trusted assembly service can assist with that. And, because it always seems to come back to cost in the end, remember: If you want to assembly high-volume orders on your own, you’ll need supper-expensive mounting and inspection equipment to meet capacity needs.
- Option for aftermarket services and obsolescence management: A PCB manufacturer can become a business partner who has a vested interest in your success. The right vendor can become your partner in everything from PCB design layout to the distribution process, and beyond. Such a PCB and assembly vendor will have an on-staff engineering team to help with redesign. If you’re trying to focus on a new product but also need someone to manufacture a legacy product, you’ve hit the motherload. After your product hits the market, the partnership can continue. The full PCB service provider can perform a failure analysis to figure out how quickly products are failing out in the real world.