Skip to Content

Let’s Talk Business(800) 550‑6005

Employment Helpline(844) 426-2253

Search Jobs

Electronics Manufacturing

It can take months to design a new product, followed by more months of testing and modifying prototypes. After spending so much time and effort, you want to make sure that your contract PCBA manufacturer can deliver the product you designed.

So when it comes time to vet the manufacturer who’s going to bring your product to life, how do you ensure that you get the quality and reliability your design deserves? And at a price point that makes sense?

Here are a few factors to keep in mind when you’re looking for a contract PCBA manufacturer.

Deep Expertise and Broad Experience

There are some basic capabilities that any contract manufacturer should have. At a minimum, the vendor you choose should have deep expertise in both surface-mount technology and through-hole manufacturing. And whether your product calls for using automated or manual tooling, your contractor should have experienced assemblers on staff who can expertly manufacture your cable or harness assembly to the highest technical standards.

The manufacturer should also have experience with a variety of design tools, including CAD and schematic capture software, so they can ensure the most accurate and efficient PCB design and layout, and even catch any issues that might affect product performance.

And of course, experience assembling boards for your particular type of product is a plus, whether your product is a medical device, a consumer gadget, or an ITAR-compliant aerospace component.

PCBA-Specific DFM Expertise

Any PCBA manufacturer you work with should offer a basic DFM (design for manufacturability) review at no cost. This type of review allows your contract manufacturer to design the most efficient assembly process, which can lower your materials and labor costs. For example, a DFM review may enable your contractor to recommend easily accessible standard pieces to replace expensive custom ones, or design an assembly process in which pieces are soldered by machine instead of by hand.

A competent manufacturer can also analyze your board design with the entire product lifecycle in mind. There may be minor modifications that can make your product more sustainable, or easier to recycle at the end of its life—so that you can recover and resell components for a secondary revenue stream.

Certifications, Registrations, and Compliance Experience

An easy way to get a sense of a manufacturer’s capabilities is to look at the certifications they hold. At a minimum, their facilities should be ISO 9001 certified. For added confidence—especially if your device is complex—make sure your provider has SMTA-certified SMT Process Engineers on staff. Depending on your industry, you’ll also want to check for specialty certifications and registrations, like ISO 13485 certification for medical devices, and ITAR registration for defense products. And if you are making a device for the aerospace and defense industry, then your contractor should be accustomed to working on sensitive and restricted products.

Finally, keep in mind that while certifications are important, they’re not enough by themselves to ensure that the manufacturer you’re vetting can deliver what you need. Experience is just as important.

Certifications are important, but they’re not enough to ensure that the manufacturer you’re vetting can deliver what you need. Experience is just as important.

DFT and Quality Control

To ensure a high percentage of viable product, your contract manufacturer should have a quality control program in place. QC starts with rigorous testing of prototypes before production, to make sure there are no performance or regulatory compliance issues. At this early stage, your contractor should also perform a DFT (design for testability) review and recommend small adjustments to ensure easy testing, like adding test points to the bottom of a PCB.

Once products are coming off the assembly line, testing should be conducted regularly to ensure quality standards are maintained and so reduce customer returns. Your manufacturer should use the latest in automated optical inspection (AOI) technology, along with 2D and 3D X-rays, to check for quality, durability, and reliability.

In addition to visual inspections, the manufacturer should also conduct component-level checks and in-circuit verification. This high level of scrutiny is required to detect minute defects, which is especially important for products that must meet stringent performance requirements, such as medical devices and goods destined for the aerospace and defense market.

While no manufacturer can guarantee that every product coming off the assembly line will be perfect, careful testing and stringent quality control measures should achieve first-pass yield rates well above expectations.

Data-Driven, Flexible, and Scalable Capacity

If you’re lucky, demand for your product will exceed your projections. But that kind of popularity won’t translate into sales if your contract manufacturer isn’t able to ramp up production in time to meet increased demand. To respond quickly to changes in demand, your manufacturer should have data analytics tools that can precisely forecast material needs, even for products with cyclical demand.

It’s crucial that the manufacturer you choose be nimble enough to handle small batches. But they should also have the capacity to increase production when needed. This means having ample facilities, a scalable workforce, and the engineering expertise on staff to modify or expand the assembly line quickly and efficiently.

Extensive Supply Network

One of the most important questions to ask when vetting potential manufacturers is: Can they source quality materials and components?

A contract PCBA manufacturer that has been in business for several years should have an extensive network of parts and material suppliers. This means that they can not only source the parts you need, but most likely buy them at a bulk discount that you may not be able to get on your own.

Having a contractor with multiple supplier contacts means production won’t shut down when one parts supplier runs out of a component you need. And if you need to modify your product, your manufacturer should be able to quickly source any new components.

Shipping and Warehousing Services

The ideal manufacturer can also offer forecasting and capacity planning, along with procurement and materials management services. Having all of these services available through one supplier lets you streamline warehousing and distribution, so you can control your inventory more accurately, ramp production up or down as needed, and manage inputs more efficiently.

A manufacturer that offers logistics services can also review your product design with packaging and shipping in mind, so that you end up with a finished product that’s robust enough to not require expensive packaging solutions. And real-time tracking is a must if you want to avoid costly product shortages or overstocks.

The interior of a warehouse holding electronics products
The ideal manufacturer can also offer forecasting and capacity planning, along with procurement and materials management services.

Customer Support and Communication

Communication is key to a good working relationship with your contract PCBA manufacturer. No matter how competent your contractor’s team is, if they don’t have clear communication protocols in place, you’ll have a hard time working with them.

For example, contract manufacturers that offer fully automated electronic data interchange (EDI) or web-based interfaces make it easy to implement urgent changes in product configurations or shipping parameters.

But beyond technological considerations lies the simple question: If you reach out to your manufacturing partner, how easy is it to get a hold of someone? The technology is only as responsive as the people using it, which is why it’s important to know what customer service protocols a manufacturer has in place before you contract with them.

What is their policy for responding to queries, for example? Within 24 hours? Within two hours? Will you have a dedicated customer service representative, someone whose name you know and can call whenever you need? Or will you be given a general number that will connect you to whoever happens to be available that day?

If your product is not very complex, customer service may be less of a consideration. But if you’re producing a sophisticated product, you can’t wait for answers to technical questions. And you shouldn’t have to.

PCBA Manufacturing Services You Can Rely On

Our flexible, customized PCBA manufacturing is supported by highly skilled staff and driven by a commitment to quality that extends to all the services we offer. From streamlining product designs for greater efficiency, to high-precision manufacturing, to end-of-life product management, our team can help you get the most from your product’s lifecycle.
Learn More
Communication is key to a good working relationship with your contract PCBA manufacturer.

Did shortages of semiconductors and electronic components cause problems for your company in 2022? How have you managed these supply chain issues in 2023? In an opinion piece that appeared in Circuitnet, Andrew Williams, Engineering Manager at PRIDE Industries, explains how design for manufacturability (DFM) can help electronics companies overcome these challenges. 

Read the article
PRIDE Industries Andy Williams
Andrew Williams, PRIDE Industries' Engineering Manager for Electronics Manufacturing

There are several factors that companies typically consider when vetting a potential supplier of electronics manufacturing services (EMS), including: the supplier’s production capacity, the sophistication of its distribution and tracking systems, and its network of component suppliers. But if you want to get the most out of your EMS provider, you would do well to consider one other factor—the experience of the provider’s manufacturing engineers.

Partnering with an EMS provider that has its own engineering team will allow your company to temporarily expand its engineering resources. Doing so yields four significant advantages, allowing your company to:

  1. Save money
  2. Save time
  3. Modify products quickly
  4. Navigate supply chain disruptions quickly

The main reason you want your EMS provider to have qualified engineers is to boost your company’s engineering expertise. Maybe your latest product is a little outside your wheelhouse, but you don’t want to hire internal expertise just for that product. Maybe designing your product is taking longer than you expected, and you need a fresh pair of engineering eyes on it. Or maybe you’re busy with other projects and can’t give this product the engineering attention it deserves.

In each of these instances, it makes sense to bring on additional expertise. Because the engineers at your EMS provider work on multiple projects, they’ve likely already dealt with whatever challenges you’re facing. They have experience across an array of industries and know a few tricks from other products that can help ensure your product’s success.

As we move into the era of the smart factory, the engineering team your EMS provider offers will become more important to the success of your product.

How an EMS Provider’s Manufacturing Engineers Can Save You Time and Money

Perhaps the most important reason to tap the expertise of your provider’s engineers is to make sure that your product’s design is as functional and cost-effective as possible. That means looking beyond the product itself and scrutinizing every step of the manufacturing process.

While raw materials can be expensive, much of your product’s cost comes from labor. That’s why a review of your product’s prototype—through a DFM (design for manufacturability) lens—can yield significant savings in the long term.

An experienced engineer, one that has helped develop hundreds of products, can help you optimize your product’s design so that it can be made as quickly and inexpensively as possible, without sacrificing performance or quality. These engineers know how to streamline both machine and hand-processed operations and can ensure compliance with regulations. And if your design uses custom components, your provider’s engineers may be able to recommend less expensive, off-the-shelf substitutes.

A DFM review is especially important now that supply chains aren’t as predictable as they once were. In short, scrutinizing your product design with manufacturability in mind:

  • Offers greater product consistency through optimized processes
  • Lowers product loss by reducing the level of non-conforming products
  • Ensures a high-quality product
  • Lowers per-unit cost
  • Reduces turnaround time for orders
  • Can provide greater sustainability
  • Can improve rework-ability
  • Increases end-user satisfaction

Working with electronics engineers who have deep manufacturing experience ensures that your product’s manufacture will be as efficient as possible. A strong EMS provider should be able to review your data package and create the fastest, least labor-intensive process. These engineers can help you simplify your bill of materials, clean up your manufacturing line, and leverage technology.

Manufacturing Engineers Offer Expertise in Multiple Areas

While DFM is of primary importance, there are other issues to keep in mind when it comes to your product’s design. An experienced engineer can help you create a product design that enables easy testing—ensuring high quality and saving you money down the manufacturing line.

And if you have to modify an existing product’s design—perhaps to account for changing consumer demands—working with your manufacturer’s engineers will let you update your design in a way that minimizes the changes needed to the manufacturing process.

Is sustainability a priority for your company? Experienced contract manufacturing engineers are used to planning the entire lifecycle of the product. They can help you design products that use less electricity, for example, or that use lower VOC conformal coatings. They can also make it easier to extract useful components for resale at the end of the product’s lifecycle—an increasingly popular secondary revenue stream for electronics manufacturers.

Engineering Expertise is No Longer a Luxury

As manufacturing processes become more complex, and we move into the era of the smart factory, the engineering team your EMS provider offers will become more important to the success of your product. Greater automation means greater complexity. An engineer can help design a manufacturing process that leverages the latest technology, like the Industrial Internet of Things, autonomous robots, AI, and advanced materials. Engineers know how to interpret the data gathered from the IIoT, and can move quickly to optimize the manufacturing process to maximize efficiency.

But no matter how simple or complex your product is, your EMS provider’s engineers should listen to you. Their priority should be to design a process that helps you achieve your priorities, whether performance, sustainability, or cost. A strong engineering team will be able to help you balance your priorities so that you can achieve your manufacturing goals.

engineer holding electrical component
A DFM review is especially important now that supply chains aren’t as predictable as they once were.

Choosing an Engineering Team You Can Work With

To make sure your EMS provider has the skill set to truly help you, check to see if they have earned appropriate certifications related to your needs. For example, do their team members have SMT Process Engineer certification from SMTA? This elite certification signifies that the engineer you are working with can ensure that your complex PCB assembly fits with the best manufacturing process. SMTA certification also means that your contract engineers know how to modify product designs when requirements change and can resolve production issues quickly.

SMTA-certified engineers are also able to clearly explain design constraints and tradeoffs, making it easy for you to determine which product features are cost-effective and which won’t pay for themselves.

How to Work with Your Contract Engineering Team

Once you have chosen a contract EMS provider with the expertise you need, how do you work with their engineers to get the most from the partnership? Here are a few points to keep in mind to maximize your return:

  • You should keep DFM in mind from the beginning. But it is good to run a DFM check, even in later stages of the design process, to make sure nothing was missed. So have your EMS provider’s engineers do a thorough DFM review of your final prototype—especially if this is the first time they are seeing your product.
  • Experienced engineers have tested hundreds of products. Leverage that expertise by having them help develop the testing procedures for your device.
  • Likewise, use your contract engineers to help define the requirements for manufacturing process steps.
  • Make clear in your agreement how you plan to work with your contract engineering team. At which stages of design and development will you be bringing them in? Clarifying this up front will improve communication and help avoid delays.
  • If your contract manufacturer’s engineers will be working closely with your engineering team, be sure to spell out in your agreement who owns the information once the project is finished. It is highly unusual for an EMS provider to assert any ownership of a project they worked on for a customer, but it is always better to be safe than sorry.

Following these simple rules will ensure a strong working partnership between your company’s engineers and your supplier’s engineering team. And building a partnership brings advantages that are as significant as they are hard to measure. After all, a supplier merely delivers a service. But a partner looks out for your interests.

Electronics Design and Manufacturing Services

Our flexible, customized electronics manufacturing is supported by highly skilled, SMTA-certified engineers and driven by a commitment to quality and exceptional customer service. From streamlining product designs for greater efficiency, to high-precision manufacturing, to end-of-life product management, our team can help you get the most from your product’s lifecycle.
Learn More
SMTA Logo
SMTA-certified engineers are able to clearly explain design constraints and tradeoffs.

Electronics manufacturing has undergone multiple changes over the past few decades. Technologies like 3D printing, computer-aided design, and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT) have changed the factory floor considerably in just the past twenty years. But in many ways, the factory still resembles its 20th-century predecessor. That may be about to change, however, because a confluence of new technologies is coming together to create a whole new way to make electronics—by manufacturing in space.

The History of Space-Based Manufacturing

Even though it will be years before we see commercial manufacturing in space, researchers and corporate executives have been planning for space-based manufacturing since the sixties. In a way, these visionaries have been waiting for technology to catch up to their aspirations, and that’s finally happening.

Computing power, for example, has grown exponentially since the mid-20th century, leading to advances in AI, robotics, and communications. In addition, launch costs have fallen over the past few decades, and the trend is continuing. There are still a few technological roadblocks to overcome, but as a recent McKinsey analysis points out, we are nearing the point at which space-based R&D and manufacturing become a reality.

Why Manufacture in Space?

For the aerospace and defense industries, the advantages of manufacturing and assembling products in space are obvious. Space shuttles and other structures, such as labs, can take on diverse shapes if they don’t have to be launched from Earth’s surface. They can be made of thinner material as well. And they can be much bigger than anything that’s been built before.

Already, China is investigating a proposal to create ultra-large spacecraft that are half a mile long. These behemoths would be too large and too heavy to launch from Earth’s surface. Instead, the ship’s components would be sent up into space in a series of launches, and then the pieces would be assembled in orbit—like giant space Legos.

But creating large ships and space stations is just the beginning. Organizations like NASA want to do more than merely assemble components in space.

While it will take years to have factories in space, the benefits of these manufacturing innovations will be here a lot sooner.

International Space Station with Earth in background
Advanced materials manufacturing is already being carried out on the International Space Station.

Make It, Don’t Take It!

NASA officials have concluded that in order to undertake long-duration exploration missions, they must adopt a new paradigm for the construction and maintenance of space architectures. Their catchphrase for this new approach is “Make it, don’t take it.” The goal is to develop processes that allow for the on-demand fabrication and repair of critical systems and habitats. This would not only lower launch costs, but also reduce risks (and expenses) by decreasing the reliance on spare parts and lessening the need for component redundancy.

To that end, NASA is supporting the development of technologies that further its in-space manufacturing (ISM) initiative. These technologies include Zero-G 3D printers and recyclers, both of which have applications in electronics manufacturing. The agency’s multi-material FabLab, for example, is currently developing an additive process for 3D printing a variety of metals. NASA’s goal is to enable the manufacturing of critical components—including embedded electronics—that make long-duration space missions possible.

Another essential for long-duration space flights is the ability to recycle and refabricate materials. One of NASA’s solutions to this challenge is ERASMUS, a next-generation device that integrates a 3D printer with a recycler and a sterilizer to create a closed-loop system that turns plastic waste into food- and medical-grade filaments. These filaments can then be fed to a 3D printer to create plastic implements for a variety of purposes.

Once these technologies are fully developed, they will not only enable exploratory missions to reach deeper into space than ever before, they’ll also make the manufacturing and recycling of commercial electronics on earth more efficient and less expensive.

Made in Space

For the near future, NASA’s push for space-based manufacturing will benefit electronics companies only tangentially, by developing sophisticated new technologies that can be leveraged here on Earth. But eventually, electronics manufacturers will be able to reap the benefits of space more directly, by conducting research and development in sterile, microgravity environments—and possibly even manufacturing products there.

Companies hoping to one day conduct research or manufacturing in space have found a strong ally in NASA, which has doled out nearly $40 million in seed money to enable companies and research institutions to develop new technologies. The space agency has been up front about its desire to develop a robust economy in low-Earth orbit (LEO), and sees itself as both an investor and a future customer of the companies it helps fund.

The semiconductor industry is of particular interest to NASA, which of course benefits from smaller, faster processors.

Why Manufacture Semiconductors in Space?

Space offers a unique environment for research and manufacturing. Perhaps the most useful aspect of this environment—especially for semiconductor manufacturing—is microgravity. The near weightlessness of low-Earth orbits is ideal for chip manufacturing.

Right now, semiconductor chips are made in highly sanitized clean rooms, because even microscopic specks of dust can ruin a chip. Keeping these rooms clean requires expensive protocols and equipment—sophisticated filtration systems, multiple exhaust structures, static dissipative materials, and climate control equipment.

But in microgravity, specks of dust don’t “fall” onto chips. That’s one reason why a clean room in space would be easier to operate. Another reason is the natural vacuum of space. Researchers are now working on ways to leverage this natural vacuum to reduce or eliminate the gases that are generated during chip production. An innovation in this area could lead to more efficient layering techniques—both in space and on Earth—which would lead to smaller, faster chips.

Recycling: A Key to Manufacturing in Space

One of the roadblocks to manufacturing in space is the need to bring equipment and raw materials into low-Earth orbit—an expensive proposition. Fortunately, there are startup companies already tackling this problem, including a new business in Davis, California. Build Beyond LLC, a seed-stage startup, has created a device that can harvest metal from the space junk orbiting above us, and then recycle that metal to make new structures.

The device works on steel, aluminum, and other metals. It uses magnets to capture, move, and melt the material. Eventually, it will also be able to mold the metal into new shapes. The goal is to create an inductive foundry in space, one that can produce rods, plates, struts, and other components.

Space Technology Brings Manufacturing Solutions to Earth

As with so many technologies developed for space, Build Beyond’s device has potential applications here on Earth. Because inductive welding doesn’t create sparks, this technology could be used for welding or mending cracks in pipelines, large containers, and railroad cars. And because the device is designed to work autonomously, it can make dangerous repairs remotely—a real boon for worker safety.

The Davis startup’s recycling system is a prime example of where space-based manufacturing is right now—at the very beginning. And though these new technologies are being developed to operate in low-Earth orbit, their initial applications will probably be rolled out here on the ground. So while it may take decades to have factories in space, the benefits of these manufacturing innovations will be here a lot sooner.

Electronics Design and Manufacturing Services

Our flexible, customized electronics manufacturing is supported by highly skilled engineers and driven by a commitment to quality and exceptional customer service. From streamlining product designs for greater efficiency, to high-precision manufacturing, to end-of-life product management, our team can help you get the most from your product’s lifecycle.
Learn More
Futuristic moon base for manufacturing
NASA plans to use next-generation 3D printing to build and maintain structures on the Moon.

Prices for semiconductors have risen steadily since 2020, and the increase is likely to continue for a while longer. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, businesses in the U.S. paid 8% more for chips in July of 2022 than they had a year earlier, and experts predict a similar increase this year. These price increases are having a significant impact on electronics manufacturing.

While there’s not much electronics manufacturers can do about the cost of the chips they use, it is possible to offset this price increase by streamlining manufacturing processes and optimizing the use of materials. Here are four steps you can take to keep a lid on the price increases you pass along to your customers.

Simplify Your Bill of Materials

It’s a standard rule of thumb that the more unique pieces you use to make your product, the more expensive it will be. So, whenever you can use the same component for more than one purpose, do it. Adopting a common platform architecture—using as few unique components as possible—will enable you to buy parts in larger quantities, allowing you to qualify for bulk discounts.

Simple components, such as screws, are especially well suited to common platform architectures. Instead of using a unique screw for every one of 16 distinct functions, for example, use one screw as many ways as you can. This might let you cut back from 16 types of screws to five and enable you to save money by buying your screws in larger quantities.

Even more complex components can perform double, triple, or quadruple duty. Surface mount resistors are a prime example. It may be more elegant to design your board with optimally sized resistors in every position. But buying resistors in four sizes, for example, can be expensive. It is often more efficient to consolidate your component package, simplify your bill of materials, and benefit from bulk discounts.

Similarly, you can sometimes reap significant savings by switching from custom components to off-the-shelf ones. That custom connector may be ideal for your product, but if it’s not available in stock and must be ordered from the manufacturer, you may pay more. Switching to an off-the-shelf counterpart will not only cost you less, but it will also be easier to source. And do you really want to be dependent on one source for a critical part?

Sometimes companies turn to custom components because their products are aging, and parts are getting harder to source. But in that case, the answer is not to bend over backward to find increasingly scarce components. Maybe it’s time to consider a redesign.

Clean Up Your Electronics Manufacturing Processes

Whether you are updating an existing product, or bringing a new device to the drawing board, it is important to design with manufacturing in mind. Designing a clean product may offer lower material and labor costs and reduce risk.

Concurrent manufacturing, in which the product’s design and the manufacturing process are viewed as one single design challenge, can optimize your product’s functionality, and lower the cost of its production. Concurrent manufacturing lets you step back and look at the total cost of making your product.

The reality is that the cheapest part isn’t always the least expensive—not if it raises your labor costs by more than you save on the part. PCBs are a case in point. A slightly more expensive board, one that enables you to add test points to the bottom, can reduce your overall manufacturing cost by making it possible to easily test your product, ensuring a consistently elevated level of quality. Keeping such factors in mind as you design your PCBs will save you money later.

Similarly, designing your product to minimize the number of unique parts doesn’t just simplify your bill of materials, it also reduces your labor costs. Any time you can minimize human motion, you speed up assembly. To go back to a previous example: Designing a product that uses only five unique screws instead of 16 means that workers are pulling components from fewer bins and need to be familiar with fewer components.

Considerations like these are why it is useful to loop in your manufacturer at an early stage before your product design is set in stone. If you allow your EMS provider to examine your product’s CAD files or Gerber data, they can suggest changes before you build your first prototypes. This can speed up your design process, reduce your manufacturing costs, and get your new product to market quickly.

Leverage Technology

At every stage of the design and manufacturing process, innovative technologies are introducing greater efficiencies. But even fans of the latest technology don’t always utilize it to its full extent.

Virtual prototyping is one such example. You are probably using CAD programs to create and manipulate prototypes virtually before you invest in physical versions. That is a smart use of the technology. But have you thought of sharing your CAD data with your EMS provider?

There are several advantages to doing so. Not only can your manufacturing partner vet your design for ease of manufacturing and testing, it can also use that data to design jigs and fixtures without having to measure your product. And examining your product virtually also enables a manufacturer to provide a more accurate quote—so there aren’t any surprises when the assembly line starts up.

Make sure your EMS provider is using their technology creatively as well. 3D printing, for example, is becoming more common. Now your EMS provider can skip the machinist and make their own custom jigs and fixtures, as well as specialized, ESD-safe, product-specific tools. This capability can save you both time and money.

And that is just the beginning. Now, instead of waiting for a final working version of your PCB, your manufacturer can 3D print one from your CAD files and jumpstart designing supporting components such as the case. And once your final product design is near completion, your EMS provider can 3D print a replica of your device and use that replica to design the packaging for your product—and even determine shipping costs. This means that you will be ready to start shipping your product as soon as it’s built.

As with design and manufacturing, you may have to make counterintuitive choices to optimize the amount of finished product you warehouse.

bolts and washers
Using fewer unique components can lower both labor and material costs.

Optimize Your Supply Chain

With supply chains showing signs of continued instability, inventory control is more critical than ever before. Fortunately, innovative technologies are making it easier to manage the stocks of both inputs and warehoused products.

With component parts, it is important to keep enough on hand to avoid a production slowdown, without paying for unnecessary warehouse space. For some parts, it makes sense to buy 18 months of supply at a time. With others, buying enough for six months will be sufficient. The trick is figuring out the right amount for both so that inventories align with build schedules. If a microchip is getting low, does that mean the manufacturer is getting behind? Or is it the result of a temporary spike in customer orders? Your strategy for managing the shortage will be different depending on the answer.

It is important to know which components only need a six-month supply, and which require hoarding. A good manufacturing partner can alert you to changes in component status and advise you on how much you should carry.

For finished products, your EMS provider should be using barcode scanners to gather real-time data, so that it can precisely track lots and batches of your product. This not only lets you maintain stock equilibrium, but also makes it easy to manage returns and get an accurate read on inventory levels at a moment’s notice.

As with design and manufacturing, you may have to make counterintuitive choices to optimize the amount of finished product you warehouse. For example, it may make more sense to build your products every quarter instead of every month. The inventory costs will certainly be higher, but it’s still worth it if the manufacturing savings are greater than the increased warehousing expenses.

Supply chain calculations like these are fluid and complex, and so require close communication with your contract manufacturer. For this reason, electronics OEMs are tightening communications with their manufacturing partners, sharing more data and—in some cases—moving manufacturing back to the United States.

Electronics Design and Manufacturing Services

Our flexible, customized electronics manufacturing is supported by highly skilled engineers and driven by a commitment to quality and exceptional customer service. From streamlining product designs for greater efficiency, to high-precision manufacturing, to end-of-life product management, our team can help you get the most from your product’s lifecycle.
Learn More
worker holding scanner tool
Inventory control is more critical than ever before.

The term “electronics manufacturing” encompasses a broad range of industries, from consumer electronics to aerospace. But not every contract electronics manufacturer has the broad range of capabilities necessary to serve more than one or two industries. In other words, the contract manufacturer that does such a great job building a toy robot may not be the best choice for building an optical transceiver. That’s okay, as long as the electronics manufacturing service (EMS) provider you choose has the capabilities you need for your particular device. To make sure that your product is in good hands, be sure to keep the following in mind.  

Medical Devices

If your product is a medical device, then at a minimum, your EMS provider must be ISO 13785 certified. But this certification is just the beginning. Medical devices must meet exceptionally high production standards, which means your product will likely require a customized manufacturing solution—one that incorporates rigorous testing. In addition, your EMS provider should have engineers on staff who can review your design to catch any potential issues that might compromise the product’s safety or reliability.

Aerospace and Defense Products

If your products are destined for aerospace or defense customers, then security and reliability are key. Your EMS provider should be ITAR registered, not just for manufacturing, but all along the supply chain. Your provider should also be familiar with the demands of building and shipping secure devices and should be able to deliver complex assemblies while meeting strict national security standards. At a minimum, it should adhere to NIST standards and employ up-to-date technology—like ESD flooring to protect sensitive microelectronics, and AOI systems to detect even minute flaws early in production. Ideally, your provider will also be able to securely pack, ship, and track your products.  

Consumer Electronics

If you sell electronic devices to the general public, then you need an EMS provider who can respond quickly to modifications and/or upgrades to your product. Consumer tastes are ever changing, and products need to evolve in response. If your EMS provider has engineers on staff who can help you tweak your product’s design and quickly modify the manufacturing process, you’ll be able to meet consumer demand before it morphs yet again. Ideally, your EMS provider should also offer shipping and logistics services with a strong predictive capability, so that you can respond rapidly to fluctuations in demand. An experienced provider can ensure that you don’t carry too much expensive inventory, or miss out on potential sales because of a product shortage.

The contract electronics manufacturer that does such a great job building a toy robot may not be the best choice for building an optical transceiver.

electronics manufacturing worker
An EMS provider should be able to analyze your prototype and suggest ways to optimize material use.
Two employees in blue coats working on manufacturing floor machine
For quicker time to market, make sure the EMS provider you choose employs advanced technologies.

Finding a Contract Electronics Manufacturer – The Fundamentals

While it’s true that many manufacturers specialize in delivering services to a particular industry, there are a few qualities that are shared by all top-notch EMS providers. Here are the capabilities your manufacturing partner should have, no matter your industry.

Industry Experience: Whatever your field of electronics, life will be easier if your EMS provider has experience working with products like yours. In the same way that surgeons gain expertise with every operation they perform, manufacturing engineers are in many ways the sum total of every product they’ve helped bring to market.

Technical Expertise: Speaking of engineers, be sure your EMS provider has the technical expertise your product demands. Simple products don’t need an engineer’s involvement, but if your electronics device has multiple functions, an engineer with deep PCBA experience can help you streamline your board design without losing functionality.

DFM Services: Your engineers may have come up with an elegant product design, but how easy is it to build? A strong EMS provider will have engineers who can analyze your prototype to make sure your product can be built at a reasonable cost and speed. For example, they may recommend off-the-shelf components to replace custom parts, thus lowering the production cost.

Testing Services: Your manufacturer should regularly test the products coming off the line, especially early batches, so they can catch any systemic errors early on. Keeping faulty products from making it to market will save you from making warranty repairs or sending replacements to customers. To make this easy and inexpensive, your device should be designed with testing in mind—something a capable manufacturing partner can help with.

Certifications and Registrations: An easy way to get a sense of an EMS provider’s capabilities is to look at the certifications they hold. At a minimum, the provider should be ISO 9001 certified. For sophisticated devices, make sure your provider has SMTA-certified engineers on staff. Depending on your industry, you’ll also want to check for specialty certifications and registrations, like ISO 13485 certification for medical devices, and ITAR registration for defense products.

Advanced Technologies: What technologies does the EMS provider offer? For example, is it capable of in-house 3D printing of jigs, fixtures, and ESD-safe tools? Does it have a laser available to easily etch and cut metals? An EMS provider that has these technologies on hand can greatly speed your time to market.

Awards: Though not as important as certifications and registrations, awards do tell you something about the quality of the contract manufacturer, especially if those awards come from customers.

Environmentally Responsible: Most companies today are working hard to green their manufacturing processes and ease the environmental footprint of their products. If this is a priority for your company, then look for an EMS provider that incorporates circular-economy principles into its manufacturing processes and can help you design a product with a sustainable lifecycle.

Supply Chain Services: A manufacturing partner that’s skilled in supply chain management can help you source less expensive components and make it easier to navigate global supply disruptions. It can also help you eliminate waste and redundancy and maximize the recovery of useful material at your product’s end of life.

Fulfillment Services: Packaging and shipping is the last mile of the production process, and a full-service EMS provider will offer this. Ideally, your provider should be able to track your products from the factory floor to the point of sale, facilitating returns and allowing you to gather valuable user data.

Your Smart Manufacturing Partner

Are you looking to streamline your supply chain? Design your product for easy manufacturing? Or maybe you’d like to wring more profit at the end of your product’s lifecycle. Whatever your priorities, the engineers at PRIDE Industries can help you reach your manufacturing goals.
Learn More