| I wish there was more of this type of information about injection molding, that seems like more of a dark art than electronic assembly. What do you guys think of having the component manufacturer source the parts? I've seen some that purchase parts directly from Digikey, but I'm not sure if they pool together orders for discounts, or if they just handle the purchasing so you don't have to. It seems like they could get a better deal than I could (I always assumed that a manufacturer would try to source locally in China and get stuff for dirt cheap, but they buy from Digikey too - seems kind of strange). Does anyone know any good US based contract manufacturers? All the ones I've seen are ridiculously expensive ($17 for a 4" x 1" board with ~60 components, as opposed to ~$6 at Myro (thanks theunixbeard for catching that error)). I'd love to get something made here in the US, but I can't eat another $10 for my lights - especially for a service like assembly (where the quality seems like it won't matter that much - the light will work or it won't work). I've been toying with the idea of a stretch goal on Kickstarter to assemble some delta bots to do the electronic assembly (it'd be about $1200 for a single bot, whereas contract manufacturing is about $2000, but I'd have something to show for that money with a pick and place machine). Having a machine where you could throw a stenciled PCB on in any orientation, then pick and place the parts onto, and cook it on the spot (moving the camera up and watching for reflow) would be pretty awesome. It's sticky being in the 'middle' - big enough where you need to use services rather than hand assembly, but small enough where you don't really have any purchasing power. The road to production has a big no man's land in the middle. Ch00f has a great write up on the process of going through with contract manufacturing, and some of the hurdles he saw with the process - http://ch00ftech.com/2013/04/16/making-55-of-something-witho... |
Second quote of the week in one week. ;-)
I make a couple of small electronic gadgets for my side business. My day job is also involved in electronic manufacturing, and I've had a good overview of what it involves.
Amusing anecdote: I was restocking a critical part, and noticed that one of the _alternate_ part numbers was on end-of-life status. I panicked and bought out my supplier's entire inventory of my preferred part number.
That turned out to be the world's remaining supply, and the part is now obsolete. I suppose at the end of the day, the lesson is that no matter how good you think your suppliers are about keeping you apprised of component lifetime issues, once in a while, you're going to get screwed.
For being in the "middle," it's not just purchasing power, but that there are a lot of shady vendors out there. Any start-up that is headed towards that wilderness had better have an experienced buyer along. In fact, if you're still working at a day job, any experience you can get in the trenches of supply chain management will probably benefit you.
It's also worth considering what your design chain looks like, because it is intertwined with your supply chain. For instance, if you're shopping your firmware work out, and your microchip goes obsolete, you'll need to have a plan for responding quickly. I've observed that sourcing issues can eat a measurable fraction of your engineering department's time and attention.
At this point, I've stuffed and soldered 1000+ boards.