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Manufacturing low volume electronics can be challenging and expensive. This presentation highlights some common problems and suggestions.
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Why good design is important in low volume electronic manufacturing?
Who needs low volume manufacturing?
Niche Markets Proprietary Products
Creating unique value proposition Custom fit solution
Niche Market
Life Cycle of Electronics Design
Design PCB Manufacture
Component Sourcing
Assembly Testing andCertification
MainstreamManufacturing
Issues faced in low volume production
Solutions to low volume production issues
Pain Points in low volume electronics manufacturing
Component Sourcing
Assembly Skillset
CostsCost of components and skill set increases product costs
Components are difficult to find and expensive at low volumes
Products have to be hand crafted at low volumes and need good assembly skills
Pain Point #1: Components are difficult to find and expensive at low volumes
Direct Sales
Distributor
Semiconductor CompaniesOnline Catalog Suppliers:Exhautive list of components at low volume but at a high price
Retailors for Electronic components:A small list of components at low volumes at acceptable price
Distributors:Do not cater to low volume market but offer good prices at high volumes
Direct Sales:Components specific to a company are available but logistics can make it expensive
Typical supply chain for semiconductor companies
Options for Component Sourcing
Options Available in low volumes
Price List of components
Online Catalog Yes High Exhaustive list
Retailor Yes Medium Small List
Distributor No Low Depends on companies represented
Direct Sales Yes Low (but need to include cost of shipping)
Only products of a particular company
Our Suggestion:Choose a mix bag of all options. Online catalog for hard to get components, retailors for lowering price of easily available components and direct sales when the design has a majority BOM from a single company
Pain Point #2: Skillset is required for assembly
Automated assembly not feasible at low volumes
Need skilled technician to assemble fine pitched components
Quality issues can result from a poorly done job
At low volumes products are hand crafted
Pain Point #3: Product Cost depends on component supply
In high volume business Marketing and sales overheads form a significant part oftotal product cost
In low volume business Cost of product formssignificant part of the totalproduct cost
Product costs are typically high in low volume business due to cost of components and hand crafted product
Design can fix some of these issues
Optimise bill of material with focus on availability and cost
Choice of components and packages with respect to skillset available
Design
R&D centers can play a major role to service your pain point
a)Awareness of component scenario b)Partnerships with component suppliers
c)Can reuse components across projects to hit the volume requirement
d)Developed or partnered with the right skill set to assemble the product
R & D centers
Case Study
We had selected a particular IC for our project. However, the availability was a concern. There were two sources for this component. a) Online catalog store which sold the IC at 3x the price and b) Distributor who asked us to provide an min order value of USD 500 per line. The IC was crucial for us yet the price of online catalog store would take our product cost to unacceptable limit. Hence we reused the IC in our design for other projects and were able to hit the required minimum order value to get the best price advantage
Should you go for low volume electronics
Also, view our slides on custom design for machine builders at:http://www.emeautomation.com/documentation.html
Our Take:
In commodity market low volume electronics is justified where the design can provide a good return on investment by creating a product differentiationin terms of feature set or useability
In niche market low volume electronics can still offer a competitive price advantage
Contact Ussdas
Website:www.emeautomation.com
Email:eme.automation@gmail.com
Location:Panjim Goa
Phone:0832-2420489+91 9960732924
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