Low-cost PCB Assembly and electronics manufacturing are among the most important priorities for daily high-volume consumer electronics and a key factor in maintaining competitiveness in other industries that need electronics manufacturing services. Eashub recommends customers achieve a low-cost PCB assembly or electronics manufacturing framework through the following methods and provide continuous cost competitiveness. However, remember that many of the following tips can meet your actual needs and provide a competitive cost solution in most cases. Still, when they conflict with your application, you can try them selectively. But The methods provided by these paths will provide constructive problem-solving ideas for your product at all times.

How to achieve low-cost PCB assembly and electronics manufacturing can be understood as small system engineering. Eashub is developed according to the design, processing, and manufacturing framework. We classify it as design, material selection, manufacturing, and logistics.

Design contribution

Features definition: In planning a product, it is first necessary to clarify which functions are necessary, which are redundant designs, and which are innovative designs. Redundant parts, such as excessive LED design, connectors interface, and over-spec designing, can usually be eliminated.

After the definition of the feature is completed, a design of low-cost PCB assembly covers 4 aspects, PCB size design, PCB layout, component layout, and BOM material selection.

Minimize PCB size
Use as little as PCB size to adopt the design to meet function and electrical test requirements. Also, the number of PCB layers is controlled within 4 layers according to the complexity of the product, and the minimum trace/spacing is kept within the standard spacing. it is a good start to achieve a  low-cost PCB first.

PCB Layout
All surface mount (SMT) components remain on one side of the board. All SMT components can be placed on one side of the board if there is enough space. And the board only needs to go through the reflow soldering machine once. An additional reflow process is required if the board has components on both sides. A single-sided design can save manufacturing time and cost by eliminating the second SMT run.

Component layout
The consistent placement and orientation of components play an important role in determining circuit board fabrication’s performance, reliability, and capability. When using wave soldering, components must be oriented parallel to the direction of the wave to prevent bridging or open circuits. It will greatly save time for back-end repair welding.

Mature material vs. Strange material
It won’t save you any real manufacturing costs, but mature parts always mean competitive prices. If a part is out of stock, a redesign is not needed. When the market supply is not good, it can be quickly reduced and replaced. There are two important points, and one is to choose standard size parts; second, for some key active materials, mainly ICs and diodes, first choose popular brands, then you can visit some manufacturers’ websites and see if there are any marked as ” Obsolete” or “Component not recommended for new designs.”

SMD devices vs. DIP devices
In addition to the limitations of voltage and power, most SMD materials can achieve the same function as DIP devices at a lower unit price, and the manufacturing cost of SMD materials will also be lower.

PCB material selection
The design process selects general-purpose and easy-to-stock materials, such as FR4 and other materials. 

Material Contribution

Material cost or BOM cost is usually the largest part of the product cost.

Material availability
Components with high availability at any time represent better prices. Those components with lower availability usually mean longer delivery times, higher out-of-stock probability, and a higher cost of fixing the shortage. Here popular brands and generic models are even more important;

Contract price
Some big OEMs may negotiate a contract price and pass it to their big EMS partners. Also, Larger contract manufacturers like Foxx and Jabol tend to have better bargaining power and usually get a good price. But almost to all small and middle OEMS, how to utilize the procurement capabilities of contract manufacturers is very important.

Resources Pool
A powerful resource pool can provide two contributions. The first is to improve the availability of materials. 2nd it means it can achieve a competitive quote in it.

Low-cost alternative
Like any market segment, component brands also have their positioning and division. In value manufacturing, many second-tier alternative brand resources offer a drop in replacement with a lower price by providing the same features or meeting the same electrical standards.

Manufacturing costs

Contract manufacturer
Choosing a competitive electronics assembly outsourcing partner is a big challenge for almost all small brands. With a successful selection, customers can fully use the lower material prices brought by the contract manufacturer’s platform and save on manufacturing costs. Usually, the top EMS factories, such as Foxconn, Jabil, and Flextronics, can get more competitive material prices. Still, customers can not share these low-cost materials. Additionally, these big guys can’t provide a competitive solution due to their high overhead and poor flexibility. And this is different from Eahub’s solution.

Production standards
The second point is to choose the appropriate standard for manufacturing your products. Usually, ISO9000 is one of the most basic quality systems. When choosing a manufacturer, try to follow the other party’s mature standards and processes to avoid unnecessary quality risks and costs. expenditure

Labour hour and working efficiency
Minimum wages and working efficiency mainly drive direct manufacturing costs. East Asia has always been the region that provides the best manufacturing costs. The latest hot areas are western China and parts of Southeast Asia.

Product and industry experience
Product and industry experience This is intangible, but a team and factory with rich product experience can save a lot of product introduction time, avoid trouble in manufacturing, and improve product quality.

Logistic cost

Logistic fee
The logistics cost usually accounts for a few percent of the overall cost. The logistics also include the logistics cost of the components used in the assembly and the logistics cost of finished goods. It is the best choice that the competitive manufacturing bases and the target market are located in the same area. Besides limited end customers in the Asian market, customers in other regions know how to outsource offshore. Therefore, the contract manufacturer selected must have strong integration capabilities and be closer to the center of the electronics manufacturing industry. We have compared their supply chains for some U.S. customers who choose nearby electronic manufacturing. Although they are thousands of miles away, appropriate Asian suppliers can still provide better prices and cycle times than local service providers. In addition, the nearby choice often presents a huge gap in exceptional cases handling and product and industrial experience.