The Printed Circuit Board assembly is one of the major components of consumer electronics today, although that has only been the case for the last 30-40 years. Thanks to the spectacular development of surface mount technology and various other advanced production techniques, it’s now become an easier option for most companies to outsource their jobs to PCB manufacturing companies than to do it in-house.
Some of the major reasons a manufacturer should look at using PCB assembly services to aid in their production are
- Doing it in-house requires a lot of expensive investments – There used to be a time when everyone did their own electronics manufacturing, but that requires a huge capital investment in production lines and equipment, not to mention manpower and expertise. For most companies, even years down the line, the foreseeable ROI on such an investment is too little.
- Economies of scale work – The benefit of outsourcing your PCB assembly is that allows you to leverage the investments other companies have made into production technology and utilise that money for other important activities. A large and dedicated electronics assembly plant will be able to produce more units, more quickly, and at a lower cost than you could with your own facilities.
- Design services are often part of the deal – While this isn’t true of all PCB services, many offer design services to help you refine your designs and provides you with an excellent PCB prototype service. Expert PCB manufacturers can often engineer superior solutions and help you produce better products, and more cheaply.
- Years or decades of experience in mass-producing electronics – Most major electronics assembly companies have years or decades of experience in mass-producing electronics. That’s expertise that would be incredibly costly if you went looking to a specialist to oversee your own operations, but comes relatively cheap when you go with an outsourced assembly firm that has been specialised to do such a thing.
- Guaranteed quality control – Another major issue with self-assembly of electronics components is QC. On top of the production facilities, Top electronics manufacturers have extensive QC procedures which can provide top quality components.
Any electronics company with any regards for its future has to consider its own reputation to be extremely important. People today can use the Internet to instantly research your company as well as all of your competitors. If you become known for putting out low-quality products, it can become a nearly insurmountable problem.
The best way to have reliable final products is to ensure that reliable components go into their manufacture. Besides improving your own products, this will also aid your engineers as well. After all, if something does go wrong, knowing that all your components were created to top-line specs will make it easier for them to find the actual source of the problem.
So, in short, the main reason you need a PCB assembly service is for the lower price and higher quality provided, and for the peace of mind that comes with putting out a reliable product. There is simply little reason today to do your own manufacturing in-house, and plenty of reason to look outside your company instead