How to Evaluate and Choose the Most Suitable PCB Manufacturer or PCB Assembler for You

Although PCB manufacturing and assembly contains many links that should be carefully examined one by one, the process is mainly centered on products, functions and services. Therefore, this article follows the same route.

Products

The quality of printed circuit boards will directly affect the application and performance of your final product. Therefore, the priority principle for evaluating PCB houses is to check their product situation, which can be expanded from three aspects: quality, industry and cost.

Quality

Everyone is eager to obtain high quality from the following aspects:

• Whether SPC such as Cpk control or manufacturing management charts of components have been applied during the PCB manufacturing process;
• Whether continuous quality management improvements such as QCC or TQM have been implemented;
• Whether the management of ECO (engineering change order) has been applied;
• Whether the component exemption control principle has been issued in their terms and conditions;
• Whether they meet strict quality control assessments, including material inspection records and management, SMT yield, AQL level, file management, BOM preservation, ESD implementation, equipment calibration;

Industry

Printed circuit boards are applied in many different industries, and specific industries have strict and special requirements for their manufacturing standards. It is almost impossible for one PCB House to cover all industries evenly. Generally speaking, they tend to be better at serving certain industries and less excellent at others. For example, a PCB House that is proficient in handling mobile phone PCBs will definitely have enough experience to limit the space of the final product, and a PCB House that mainly serves the aerospace industry will definitely perform better at high density.

In this case, you must fully understand the industries that the PCB House you are investigating is good at handling so that you work with a professional partner rather than a one-cure-all partner.

Cost

Despite the tips leading to lower PCB assembly costs, price is sometimes the main factor that drives our final decision. As a necessary consideration when choosing a PCB House, the cost should be analyzed from two aspects:

• Overall quotation – Don’t get addicted to attractive numbers alone. Reliable PCB Houses are responsible for every word they claim. You should make sure that the price their salesperson gives you is a complete price without any hidden or extra money at the later stage of your order;
• Constantly reducing costs – It refers to some discounts on your re-orders. Although a PCB House will never give you a consistently low price, you can expect constant discounts on re-orders, such as free tooling costs, etc. This strategy is a solid foundation for long-term cooperation;

Capability

As mentioned above, product quality is the soul of PCB House, and it relies on its capabilities. PCB manufacturing and assembly capabilities can be shown in the following aspects:

Certificate

The certificate represents the real manufacturing capability of the House. When working with a PCB house that is certified by ISO9001:2008, UL, RoHS and other standards, you can rest assured that they will strictly abide by the regulations of these certifications to obtain high-quality products.

Technology

The aspects about the technology of the surveyed PCB House can be summarized as the following:
•Whether the technology it applies meets your requirements and whether the processing capabilities meet your requirements;
•Whether it advances equipment processing or automation in their house;
•Whether they play a role in technology creatively;
•Whether they can lead new processing methods in the market;
•Processing capability evaluation;
•BGA IC repair capability;
•0201 or 01005 soldering capability and repair capability;
•RoHS implementation capability;
•SOP integrity;
•How to set wrong material selection and negative polarity;
•The ability to check circuits and provide DFM services;
•Moisture Sensitivity Level (MSL) component control function;
•Solder paste temperature recovery, sealing and storage life management function;
•De-panel processing capabilities;

Equipment

Until the latest technology is applied to the latest equipment, they will never be fully prosperous. In terms of PCB manufacturing and assembly, the leading equipment and its required specifications include:
•Solder paste printing accuracy. Whether it is able to print tiny components such as 01005 and CSP and what type of stencil is needed;

• Solder paste thickness checker such as SPI (Solder Paste Inspection);
• SMT pick and place machine accuracy, that is, associated with its ability in registering tiny components such as 01005 and CSP;
• X-ray detector. Generally speaking, the X-ray inspection equipment in SMT factories is 2D, suitable for shortcut inspection and vacancy inspection;
• AOI (Automatic Optical Inspection);
• ICT equipment (Agilent 3070, GenRad, TR5000);/p>

Component Source

When it comes to the services provided by PCB assemblers, component procurement accounts for a large proportion, and it is crucial to conduct research on component procurement capabilities, including:

• Whether they have a good relationship with the world’s leading component distributors;
• Whether the components they purchase are qualified;
• Whether they accept components provided by customers;
• Whether they store surplus components for your future projects;

Service

Service is closely related to the customer’s true feeling after completing the order. Compared with products and functions, this project is not that difficult to achieve. When it comes to the services provided by PCB Houses, it mainly includes the following aspects:

1. Lead Time

PCB delivery time can be investigated from the following aspects:• Whether it can be delivered in time;

• Whether the delivery time is compatible with your company’s requirements;
• Tracking service;

Some manufacturers even provide you with tracking services so that they can understand where your products have disappeared. Usually, famous PCB suppliers or assembly suppliers work closely with major Express companies.

2. Responsiveness

Responsiveness represents the company’s response to customer needs, and you can do a simple study from the following perspectives:

• Can they respond to new orders quickly?
• Can they reply to your email within 24 hours and provide full details?
• Can they provide practical solutions when emergencies occur?
• Can they expand manufacturing capabilities when you have urgent orders?
• How quickly can they respond when the project changes before or during production?

However, responsiveness does not equal response. It is understandable that sales staff know little about the company’s manufacturing capabilities, especially when looking for technical advice and confirmation. If you encounter a salesperson telling you that he or she can’t tell you until he or she gets a clear answer from the company’s technicians, you can directly request to consult these questions from the technicians. Save time and help avoid any unnecessary errors during mail transmission.

In short, the more detailed the information you investigate, the clearer the picture of the PCB House. Based on the above discussion, you can download the investigation list of PCB manufacturers or assemblers for evaluation to make the right choice as your long-term partner.