AVR-Chat

On Friday 07 March 2008 11:00:42 pm Richard Cooke wrote:

> Thanks for such a detailed answer.  This sure gives me a lot to think
> about.  But, do you think that with a board with 25 components (mostly
> 0603) $15 is a reasonable cost for the CM to assemble the boards if
> they buy the parts in 500 quantities?  There is no extra electrical
> testing just a visual.

There really is no certain answer to that question unfortunately.
At somepoint for low quantity of parts/low volume boards you run up againest
the fixed overhead costs of the CM for heating the building, keeping the 
lights on, and paying the employees.  At that point it might cost $15
for a board with zero parts on it.  $15 might be that cost of overhead
in your region, where $15 might be high in my region, and low
in some other list members region.

I agree with  Robert Adsett, pick a CM near you where you
can go visit and see what you're really paying for.
Ask them what their defect rate is, as no CM will ever make
a perfect product 100% of the time, and ask what their
rate of on-time-delivery rate has been.   For a Defibrillator
the defect rate had better be vanishingly small, compared
to something simple like a LED Luminary (more often incorrectly
called a Flash Light).

In the best of the places you'll see lots of Anti-Static Mats, Anti-Static 
Wrist Straps, Anti-Static Heal Straps, Anti-Static Smocks, it will be clean,
controlled humidity environment and it will be well lit.  The boards will be 
placed in or on Anti-Static carriers and in, not on, Anti-Static bags.  At 
the appropriate build points.

If at any point you see boards or parts in a pile, unless you are sure they
are "junk", you don't want to use that CM.  If you see people handing
populated boards between them that are not in Anti-Static Carriers run out the
door and never look back.

If the *only* thing that maters is price then you really do
have to look at China.  While I was working for the CM
we did a contract design for the top-of-the-line Paint Ball Gun
company.  After we did a many thosand boards for them they
took the business to China.  They were getting assembled
boards for less than it costs us to buy the parts in high volumes.

The China business model is completely different than
what we find acceptable here in our culture.  The extremest example
I've heard of is where you offer to leave a pretty young family
member over night so you get a better price...


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