Printed Circuit Design & Fab - December 2007 - (Page 38)

SUPPLY CHAIN mine if a PCB supplier will be a good fit for your company. The usefulness of a tour of a potential PCB shop should not be discounted, but there are often serious quality issues that cannot be uncovered by a tour alone. tive or technical liaison present in the overseas country can alleviate unforeseen issues tremendously. If having US suppliers is critical to your company, is the location within the US important? If you are located on the West coast, is it important that you be able to drive to or take a short flight to visit a supplier to discuss a problem immediately? Determine which suppliers are capable of building the product you require. To begin, Web site advertising of capability level may be useful. From your search up to this point, isolate those suppliers that are capable of meeting the layer count that you require. Determine which suppliers specialize in the materials you are required to use. For example, shops dealing with high-speed materials can be very specialized. Do you need to purchase rigid boards or flexible boards or both? Are you dealing with high-density interconnect (HDI) designs? Do you require a manufacturer capable of building a high-current board? Is there a particular company that specializes in circuit boards for the industry you serve; for example, implantable medical devices; medical equipment; military; telecommunications; Class 2 commercial products such as cell phones or televisions; or Class 3 high-reliability products, such as airplane controls or automotive safety devices)? Make a checklist of the capabilities required before starting a search, and you will be certain not to waste time completing the steps below. When narrowing the search for suppliers, also consider national and international accreditations and customer certifications. If a circuit board supplier is on the Approved Supplier List of a large OEM who performs detailed quality audits and qualification testing, you may be able to skip this step yourself. Request references and obtain recommendations from colleagues in the industry. New personnel taking on the responsibilities of supply chain manager often do not have the knowledge to know where to start in choosing the “best” suppliers. The gentleman that was mentioned above that entered an IPC meeting with the question of how to qualify his circuit board supplier had definitely come to the right place, and he did the right thing by asking the experts. Technical conferences such as these are the best place to make contacts and ask questions regarding how to determine which suppliers are best. Also, look to those who are more experienced within your company. You may not be aware of the fact that the project manager down the hall used to fill your exact position within another company. With all of the new technology appearing daily, we often forget that those with years of experience can offer the greatest input with regards to assessing quality and long-time reliability of potential PCB suppliers. It is also useful to contact potential suppliers and ask for a list of references; take the time to actually contact these references. Ask about product quality. Ask if they have received any defective product and, if so, what percentage. Determine if the technology level is similar to your company’s requirements for comparison purposes. Ask about on-time delivery. What percentage is typical? Ask about the company’s initiative to take responsibility when there is an issue and its willingness to work as a team to resolve such issues. If the reference is not a competitor, he may be willing to offer additional information regarding other potential suppliers. It never hurts to ask. Provide a few designs for quote. Provide each potential supplier within the same technology range with the same DECEMBER 2007 Qualifying Your PCB Supplier Assessing a potential PCB supplier can be very simple to very complex based on the resources available to the company. This guideline is aimed at smaller ODMs and OEMs. A few inexpensive microsections would add significantly to the “tour” approach of qualifying PCB suppliers. An outline of steps that may be taken to generate a list of potential suppliers and how to go about qualifying your supplier is shown in FIGURE 1. It is not necessary to complete all of the steps to gain confidence in the supplier, but completing as many as funding allows is key. Determine how many suppliers are needed. The trend today is limiting the number of companies on the Approved Supplier List. The purchase of PCBs is no exception. Narrowing the list to a few technically strong, reasonably priced suppliers gives the purchaser greater power to get what they want because they will be a major customer. Providing a recommendation for the exact number with which to start is not possible because this number will vary based on the range in products required for purchase. One word of caution: do not sole-source if at all possible. The uncertainty in the electronics industry, particularly in PCB production, can put you at risk of losing a single supplier of a high-demand part number (P/N). If your target is to have at least two suppliers for each P/N, then starting with at least three or four for consideration is probably a good idea. The initial list of names may be gathered from an Internet search and/or attending industry meetings or tradeshows. Tradeshows are the best way to make an initial contact and have faceto-face discussions. Although the initial contact is often with a sales representative, technical support staff are often available to visit your facility following the tradeshow. As most people are well aware, a tradeshow allows you to meet with several potential suppliers in one convenient location. Furthermore, DSCC (Defense Supply Center Columbus), QPL and QML lists are publicly accessible. Considering a PCB supplier that is on one of these lists allows you the benefit of knowing that they have quality processes in place and have been held accountable to the government with regards to product quality. Additionally, IPC’s PCQR2, Printed Board Process Capability, Quality, and Relative Reliability listing is a paid subscription to a supplier database. Finally, PCB suppliers who are contributing members to the IPC-6012 rigid board and/or IPC6013 flex circuit technical committees are also more likely to be up-to-date on the latest industry technology and requirements. Determine if the location of the supplier is important. Are there any restrictions placed by your end customers regarding overseas production? This restriction is most common in the defense industry. Purchase orders and drawings must be carefully evaluated to determine if this restriction applies. Can your company afford overseas travel to visit/ audit your supplier? Is your company willing to deal with communication difficulties and a 12-hour time difference? Assessing cost versus projected obstacles is typically the means used to make this decision. Having a sales representa38 PRINTED CIRCUIT DESIGN & FAB

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Printed Circuit Design & Fab - December 2007 Contents Our Line Market Watch Around the World Happenings ROI 2007 PCB Designer Salary Survey Interconnect Strategies Positive Plating RF Design Ad Index Noise Reduction Supply Chain DfM Off the Shelf Marketplace The Signal Doctor

Printed Circuit Design & Fab - December 2007

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