How to Reduce PCB Assembly Services Costs When Outsourcing?

More and more companies choose to outsource PCB assembly services, and in the process of outsourcing, people are often most concerned about how to reduce the cost of PCB assembly services while ensuring product quality. In this article, we will provide several actionable suggestions, let’s read on.

Choose a Reliable PCB Assembly Services Provider

Partnering with a reliable PCB assembly services provider can help you save costs and ensure the high quality of the PCBAs as well. Their extensive experience and expertise make sure that they can offer cost-effective solutions based on your project requirements. So it’s vital to choose the right partner, here are key aspects you must take into consideration before you start to work with the supplier:

First, you should check if they have obtained certifications such as ISO9001, RoHS, IPC, etc., as suppliers who can pass such stringent audits always make high-quality PCBAs. A high-quality product saves repair and reworking costs.

Second, make sure that they have the capacity to handle your assembly project. You need to know how many layers of PCBs they can assemble and what kind of PCBs they can assemble. In addition, ask about their daily output to ensure they are productive enough to do the high-volume assembly for you.

Last, ask what kind of equipment they used. Cutting-edge machines can improve assembly efficiency and accuracy to a large extent.

Let Your PCB Assembly Partner Source Components

It would be better to have your PCB assembly services supplier purchase raw materials and components, as they can source these components at lower costs. They have a stable and complete supplier network, which can not only help to reduce the costs but also ensure sufficient raw material. But please notice that you should figure out which components suppliers that your PCB assembly suppliers get from. Though costs matter much, quality is also a very important concern. You don’t want to compromise the quality of your products in pursuit of cost reduction, which could affect or even ruin your business reputation.

Provide Complete and Clear BOM

A complete and clear BOM should contain all required information including component reference, quantity, manufacturer name, description like values and tolerance, footprint, package, and note. Meanwhile, you can provide other files and references to make all your requirements more clear, such as schematic and assembly drawings. In addition, adding components replacement information in BOM is very helpful. It will take a long time to find a replacement if the original product is eliminated from the market. So complete and detailed BOM can speed up the turnaround time as well.

Optimize Your PCB Design

PCB design optimization aims to reduce the cost without sacrificing product quality and functions. Many factors affect the cost of PCB assemblies such as the circuit board sizes, the number of layers, the shape of boards, and the via technologies. Regular shapes like square and rectangle costs lower than other special shapes, therefore, when no special shape is required, design the PCB with a regular shape as much as possible. In addition, the numbers and the sizes of vias should be designed reasonably. The higher the number of vias on the board and the smaller the holes, the higher the cost.

Get PCB Assembly Services from Low Wage Areas

Partnering with a PCB assembly service provider in a low-wage area is another way to reduce the cost of PCB assembly. It is true that labor costs in Vietnam and India are much lower than in Europe and the United States, but labor in these regions is less skilled and quality is difficult to guarantee. Therefore, we recommend that you obtain labor from areas where labor is not very expensive and the labor is well-trained, and China will be one of your best choices.

MOKO Is a Reliable and Cost-Effective PCB Assembly Services Supplier

MOKO Technology has offered PCB assembly services to customers in various markets such as medical, consumer electronics, industrial, and automotive. We specialize in different assembly processes including SMT, THT, BGA, etc. More importantly, our one-stop assembly services ranging from designing, component procurement, circuit board manufacturing, PCB assembly, testing, and other after-market services can meet all your requirements well. You don’t need to work with different suppliers for getting different services, we can handle all for you so you can pay more attention to your core business.

Our in-house assembly is the key to offering competitive prices and qualified products to our clients. We have has 5 SMT and 3 DIP production lines that are well-equipped, making sure we can handle low- to high-volume orders in a fast turnaround. We have a stable relationship with our components suppliers who offer us superior raw material at lower costs, therefore, working with us can obtain the most cost-effective PCB assembly services while ensuring the quality of your products.