Henry Ford used to say, “If there is something we cannot do more efficiently, cheaper and better than our competitors, there is no point in doing it; we should hire someone to do the job better.” This sentence perfectly reflects the essence of outsourcing, which consists of delegating tasks, functions, projects, and processes to an external company. Outsourcing business services in the 21st century has become a standard without which most enterprises cannot imagine their existence on the market. Is it the same with PCB Assembly outsourcing? Let’s check.
Contract assembly of electronics is a set of services also known as EMS (Electronic Manufacturing Services). It can be translated as electronic production services by companies with an appropriate technology park, qualified staff, and experience to carry out orders for other companies based on outsourcing. As a result, smaller companies do not have to maintain their production lines but outsource production.
Benefits of PCB assembly outsourcing
Very often, contract assembly involves product design, as well as logistics support, and even complaints. The companies offering services in the field of EMS are experienced specialists on electronics manufacturers who, in addition to efficient production lines and personnel, can also provide know-how, i.e., technical knowledge regarding production. Therefore, outsourcing PCB Assembly Outsourcing to an external professional entity brings many significant benefits for enterprises. Below we present the most important of them.
#1 CONCENTRATE ON YOUR WORK
To create and grow your business, you should be free from any constraints that take a long time to focus on the product itself and selling it. Outsourcing frees the need to watch over the correct course of the PCB assembly process. That is the contractor’s task to prevent and counteract any disruptions.
Time is probably the essential profit you can make from working with a PCB Assembly supplier. Freeing yourself from these highly time-consuming tasks will allow you to become involved in developing the product and your offer, acquiring new customers, or working on marketing and advertising. In addition, the external supplier provides the customer with great peace of mind. Indeed, as a professional, his reactivity and knowledge allow him to react quickly and deal with unforeseen events. The business owner can therefore focus on creating value and developing his business.
#2 SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
The success of PCB assembly does not only depend on the infrastructure, machinery, and staff. Of course, these are necessary elements, but unfortunately not sufficient. For the project to be successful, it must ensure the supply of components and timely and regular deliveries. It also takes on the financial risk of sudden increases in material prices or guaranteeing the liquidity of stocks in a market shortage.
Supply chain management covers both the organization of transport and internal logistics, along with the planning of material flow systems in production, the supply of raw materials, warehousing, information flow management, and control of these processes. Thus, for example, an external assembly supplier can take responsibility for all individual components of the supply chain and free the original equipment manufacturer from further tasks that would distract him from growing his business.
#3 GET IN QUALITY
The experience of external service providers improves quality, and the company thus benefits from comprehensive and state-of-the-art know-how. It involves choosing the right EMS partner according to several essential criteria: their experience, skills, costs, profile, reliability, and, above all, a trust relationship that you will develop with them. The guarantee of the high quality of the services offered is also the fact that the EMS provider has the following documents:
- ISO certificates. In particular, the quality management standards ISO 9001 and ISO 13485 for medical devices) give the potential OEM a guarantee of an excellent organization of the subcontractor.
- IPC standards. Classes 2 and 3 in particular. These guidelines concern the acceptability of errors detected in visual quality control for electronic assembly processes. The greater the requirements for the final quality of the manufactured systems, the higher the class number.
#4 CONTROL YOUR COSTS AND GAIN FLEXIBILITY
Outsourcing gives the company that uses it a high level of flexibility. The service provider precisely adjusts its service to the needs of its client. The latter, therefore, converts fixed costs into variable costs depending on the activity. Overall, this fits in with the logic of budget reduction. However, flexibility is not just about freeing up specific financial resources and finding savings.
Subcontracting areas in PCB assembly are entrusted to suppliers who evolve following the principles of a competitive market to respond to customer needs, looking for competitiveness, quality, and optimization of service. Using the experience of a contractor who perfectly knows the realities of the market, OEMs have a chance to escape stiffness and routine. Furthermore, they have the opportunity to benefit from contractual cooperation, which is by nature more dynamic and adaptive.
#5 INCREASE YOUR ASSEMBLY CAPACITY
Scaling is a factor to consider when growing a business. Customers’ needs can sometimes be so prominent that you no longer keep up with accomplish all the tasks ahead. Or on the opposite, there may be conditions that turn out to be remarkably comfortable and calm. Such a swing can be avoided by outsourcing PCB assembly. The external EMS supplier has greater production capacity and resources (including human resources), thanks to which it can plan production in a much more flexible and dynamic way.
Grow your business by working with a PCB assembly supplier
The above benefits of outsourcing, including the flexibility mentioned above of financing and the lack of the need to incur large investment expenditures, directly translate into a reduction in the level of risk for a given company, especially in the case of new products for which it is difficult to predict market success and potential sales volume.
There is also no doubt that the quality of both production and assembly affects the subsequent functioning of the entire device and its safety for users. Most of the vendor’s PCB assembly offers the possibility of multi-stage testing of finished elements, using visual tests, checking the correctness of electrical connections, and functional tests. However, for the cooperation with the EMS supplier to bring the benefits mentioned above, it is worth using a contractor distinguished by a partnership approach to the customer and help and technical support, which we provide at every stage of outsourcing of PCB assembly.
For more information visit also: https://asselems.com/en/pcb-assembly
