Full Turnkey Assembly v/s Consignment PCB Assembly – Evaluate the best fit for your needs!

By Mer-Mar Electronics | Date posted: | Last updated: September 18, 2021
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In the PCB assembly process, once you are done with the design of your electronics project, you need to focus on building a PCB prototyping before you bring them to the market for high-volume production. If you are looking at working on PCB fabrication and assembly, you have two main avenues – Full turnkey assembly and consignment PCB assembly. With its own risks and rewards.

Before you choose an option, you should carefully weigh the costs and benefits of each option to ensure that you pick the best fit for your business needs.

Risks and Rewards of Full Turnkey PCB Assembly

Full turnkey PCB assembly services help you to stay agile and competitive in the industry and your CM will handle everything you need to ship the PCB to market faster at the lowest costs possible. From ordering the component, assembly, manufacturing, testing, and shipment, everything will be taken care of by the CM.

By outsourcing the major stressors, you can now focus on your PCB design, enhancing your business, and delivering the products at the shortest lead times. If you are a start-up, you can take advantage of full turnkey PCB assembly services as it may help you in incurring less operating overhead, avoid risks, and meet market demands in real-time.

Rewards of Full Turnkey PCB Assembly

PCB manufacturing involves a series of steps like printing the circuit boards, component procurement, assembly, and testing for ensuring functionality as per the specifications. You should also take care of the packaging & delivery of the final product. With full turnkey PCB assembly, you can outsource everything & focus on designing best products & run your business operations seamlessly. You would be avoiding major risks by moving quickly to meet market demands and keep your overheads low.

A turnkey manufacturer will have professionals who can handle all the things outside your purview. They would be your sole point of contact for any sort of changes needed to be made and errors on the PCB. You also don’t have to run &juggle between several vendors to track down & resolve issues. By having only, a single company for your PCB assembly, you can reduce your lead times considerably well and remove the need for any middlemen. This offers you more consistent and reliable outcomes.

Risks of Full Turnkey PCB Assembly

While you are saving your lead time and avoiding miscommunication by relying on only one PCB manufacturer, you are handing over the entire control to them. You need to be a bit wary of assigning the entire production. If it is a reputable and experienced manufacturer, you may not face too many issues as they handle everything with professionalism. Just be confident and cautious while choosing your turnkey partner.

Rewards and Risks of Consignment PCB Assembly

Get the best of both worlds – your parts and manufacturer’s expertise. This way you can have a custom PCB assembly that meets your specific requirement. With consignment assembly services, your CM will work with your in-house supply chain for getting your PCB assembled and the market quickly. The CM team handles the PCB assembly once they receive the components required for the circuit boards.

If you already have the components kit, your PCB assembly process starts immediately. The contract manufacturer must make sure that they get everything on time before they start the assembly process.

Rewards of Consignment PCB Assembly

You are responsible for ordering all the components by yourself. You need to keep track of the inventory needed for your PCB board assembly. You have to pack and ship the components to the manufacturer who handles your assembly needs. Under full turnkey process, companies will be equipped to handle but it also gives a significant control on your manufacturing process.

Not every company can meet you eye-to-eye over the design process. Unless you find a good turnkey provider with a solid background, putting a quality work may seem to be a pipedream. If you are trusting a third-party manufacturer, you are transferring the control to them. If you want to be absolutely sure of everything, you can provide the resources to handle everything as per your specifications. Consignment assembly is the great option for you.

Risks of Consignment PCB Assembly

You would have the entire responsibility and put a lot of extra effort into product assembly. You need to manage the inventory, procure components, manage multiple supply chains, do the packing, and shipping the components to the company that takes care of manufacturing. You should have money, knowledge, and staff who can help you with it. Things may go wrong in the entire process.

Which is the best for my project?

Choosing between these two is purely your prerogative. You may have to explore a bit before you narrow down your choice to one of these. But you can think of the following before you make a decision –

Do I have the component procurement capacity?

How much you can trust the CM with the material procurement?

Do you have everything in order before you contact your manufacturer for the Printed circuit board assembly process?

Can you trust your manufacturer with the expertise to troubleshoot your problems before they go for final manufacturing?

What is your final budget?

If you have a strong in-house team who can take care of the component procurement, you can trust your abilities and go for the consignment PCB assembly services. If you have a limited budget, you can pass on this straight to the manufacturer instead of going the extra mile of component procurement.

Summary

Understand the core competencies of your company and your CM for making a better choice.

Mer-Mar Electronics offers end-to-end turnkey PCB assembly services for turning your ideas into products including turnkey vs consignment PCB assembly services. We guarantee both services by taking quality as the core principle of our services. You can trust us with both services. With over 4 decades of experience, we have built trust in delivering high-quality PCB services. For faster processing, Mer-Mar Electronics has been using automated equipment for performing the assembly process.

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Top 8 Benefits of using Turnkey PCB Assembly Service for Startups

By Mer-Mar Electronics | Date posted: | Last updated: December 28, 2021
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The importance of turnkey PCB Assembly cannot be overstated. Simply put, turnkey PCB Assembly implies that the PCB supplier takes care of all aspects from procurement of components to assembly. The importance of this process becomes particularly enhanced when it comes to startups. Here are the top benefits of using turnkey PCB Assembly for startups:

  1. High quality Product – When it comes to turnkey PCB assembly services, the biggest thing on offer is a high quality product. With professional board quality and expert soldering of surface mount components, you can be sure of getting a product that is best-in-class. These days with miniaturization becoming the order of the day, the use of professional machines can ensure that the solder joints are perfect even on small components.

  2. Makes a strong impression on investors – It is a well-accepted fact, that what is likely to impress investors are not just pitch decks but also a proof of concept. Turnkey suppliers ensure that you get finished, professional looking boards with your company name and logo that add to the look & feel .The high quality product will go a long way in convincing investors that your startup is ready for final production production.

  3. Identifies Problems Early – A major advantage of using a professional turnkey supplier for your prototype is that it can in the early stages, bring to light any design concerns. The turnkey provider will review your design and therefore any manufacturing issues will come to light at this stage itself. If errors require a change in design, they can be made so that the prototype comes very close to the final product. Needless to mention, that these errors can prove to be very costly if not detected in time. Experienced PCB designers cannot just correct that product they can also help you establish design practices for future products.

  4. Saves time – A major advantage of using Turnkey PCB Assembly services is that it saves precious time for the start-up, which can be devoted to core business areas. The team need not spend its valuable time sourcing quality parts and then assembling them. The man-hours thus saved go a long way in adding to work efficiency. With a turnkey provider you need to deal with just one service provider instead of dealing with multiple PCB parts suppliers and an assembler.

    Quick turnaround time and the ability to track your order in real time also has huge advantages especially for a startup, which cannot afford to miss deadlines and impact its credibility.

  5. Single Point of Contact –With a single point of contact you also reap the advantages of the fact that any changes that are required can be done seamlessly. This is as opposed to having multiple vendors where a small change can lead to a ripple effect of delays not to mention the issues that can arise on account of communication errors.

  6. Cost efficiency – When you are running a startup, cost efficiency is a key focus area. Manufacturers are known to price turnkey services more competitively. Also if you purchase PCB parts separately you need to deal with shipping costs for each of the parts, thereby adding to the overall costs.

  7. Financial planning – The other advantage of using turnkey PCB services is also that it comes in handy in financial planning. Not only can the provider give you the current cost but also indicate the costs for higher quantity production. This will help you estimate the final product cost efficiently. With turnkey providers what you also have is the facility of instant quotes that makes planning extremely easy and hassle free.

    Turnkey assembly providers also take on orders of producing different number of units per month basis your requirements as you may not be in a position to place a large production run order. Also with repeat orders production set up costs can be reduced. You will also not have to pay for design changes in subsequent orders, thereby optimizing costs.

  8. Customization – Turnkey assembly is sometimes thought of following a cookie cutter approach. Nothing can be far away from the truth as turnkey can bring offer the benefits of customization while bringing in the cost benefits.

To sum up, a startup benefits from utilizing the services of a turnkey supplier, as they can bring ideas to life with ease. The added advantages of flexibility and speed go a long way in making it the perfect choice! The fact that you can also monitor the progress in a transparent manner, offer the much-needed peace of mind to a startup that it will be able to meet its timelines.

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Reduce Turn Times and Speed Up PCB Prototyping with Complete Turnkey PCB Manufacturing!

By Mer-Mar Electronics | Date posted: | Last updated: April 2, 2022
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Prototyping typically involves going through a whole lot of design iterations before you arrive at a final, marketable product. To interact with different companies at this time for fabrication of the PCB board, component acquisition and assembly can be extremely time consuming, thereby derailing your entire product launch schedule. Besides delays, you also run the risk of gaps in communication, which in turn can lead to costly errors.

Turnkey PCB manufacturing has therefore emerged as a panacea for these woes, where the prototyping process can be accelerated as the three areas of PCB manufacturing, sourcing and assembly are handled end to end by a single partner. Besides turnkey PCB manufacturing also allows for small batches with quick turnaround times and hence works well for the PCB prototyping process.

A traditional PCB manufacturing process involves designing the board and coordinating with other companies while creating different data files for each. Gerber files, thus prepared, can often lead to a whole lot of errors, including but not limited to:

  • Missing drill holes
  • Missing double outlines
  • Inaccurate dimensions
  • Improperly defined labels

Even if a design rule check (or DRC as it is popularly known as), is done, errors can still creep in as DRC rules can differ with different machines. Therefore, be many opportunities for errors, to mitigate which there need to be several iterations between the manufacturer and the PCB designer. This is something that turnkey PCB manufacturing can take away with its end-to-end solutions.

Similarly, when it comes to component sourcing, the traditional PCB manufacturing process requires that the specifications of the components be mentioned. However again if there are any indistinct references it can lead to sourcing errors. Component inspection undertaken to reduce these errors, in turn lead to high turnaround times. With turnkey manufacturing where the manufacturer handles procurement, the errors associated with component verification are significantly reduced.

Coming to the final process i.e assembly- when handled by the PCB manufacturer it once again significantly reduces turnaround time on account of single source management while also reducing the chances of error.

Turnkey PCB assembly typically leverages cloud-based software and makes developing printed circuit boards fast and hassle free. All you need to do is to simply upload your design files and can get an end-to- end quote as well as services.

To sum up, turnkey PCB manufacturing comes with the following advantages:

Quick Quotations

With the traditional approach to PCB manufacturing, just getting quotes can be a long process. With Turnkey PCB manufacturing, all you need to do is provide your design file and get quick quotes as well as timelines.

Suitable for small batches

Turnkey PCB Manufacturers have the ability to fulfil small orders, which means it can be easily used to develop PCB prototypes.

Single point contact

With only one vendor to manage there are no communication gaps as well as unnecessary delays. The chances of error are also significantly reduced.

Low Cost PCB

Turnkey PCB Assembly also typically comes with reduced costs on account of various issues including but not limited to reduced shipping costs of having the components sent to the assembly workshop. Also experienced electronic assemblers are able to provide low cost components as they have excellent relations with part manufacturers.

Essentially then with turnkey PCB manufacturing for prototypes you can see your ideas come to life easily. Unlike legacy setups where quantities and costs are a big determinant, turnkey services can cater to just about anyone who has an idea and a design that they want to convert into the final product. To that extent it works particularly well for startups or even hobbyists as it offers a lot of flexibility and speed. Even for large businesses, with the PCB partner taking care of end-to-end solutions, the manufacturer can focus on other aspects of business. Little surprise then that turnkey PCB assembly helps bring high quality products to market with quick turnaround times. On choosing the right turnkey PCB Manufacturing partner, you can be assured that you can get just the quantities you require and that the product will cater to your bespoke needs. As a start up you also have the peace of mind that accrues from being able to closely monitor your project as also from the reduced time lags between placing the prototype order and receiving it.

Get a free quote for Turnkey PCB Assembly!

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