-
- News
- Books
Featured Books
- smt007 Magazine
Latest Issues
Current IssueIPC APEX EXPO 2024 Pre-show
This month’s issue devotes its pages to a comprehensive preview of the IPC APEX EXPO 2024 event. Whether your role is technical or business, if you're new-to-the-industry or seasoned veteran, you'll find value throughout this program.
Boost Your Sales
Every part of your business can be evaluated as a process, including your sales funnel. Optimizing your selling process requires a coordinated effort between marketing and sales. In this issue, industry experts in marketing and sales offer their best advice on how to boost your sales efforts.
The Cost of Rework
In this issue, we investigate rework's current state of the art. What are the root causes and how are they resolved? What is the financial impact of rework, and is it possible to eliminate it entirely without sacrificing your yields?
- Articles
- Columns
Search Console
- Links
- Events
||| MENU - smt007 Magazine
Supplier Selection Key to Assembly Reliability
February 5, 2014 |Estimated reading time: 1 minute
Defining terms is always a good point to start, and from a practical standpoint, reliability can be simply defined as performance to both the design intent for the expected life cycle of the product.
When asked to discuss supply chain strategy, EMS and OEMs often respond with something like, “Yes of course, we have a purchasing department.” Supply chain management has progressed far beyond the old school purchasing mentality to become a key component of the modern business organization. We are all just pieces in the supply chain puzzle that is responsible for getting the ultimate customer’s product to market.
The first step in developing an SCM program is to identify all purchased materials (and services) into two categories, standard and critical. Suppliers of critical materials are the ones that need to be controlled; you probably don’t want to spend too much time managing your supplier of stationary and paperclips. A raw PCB supplier is a perfect example of a critical material, both from a technology complexity standpoint as well as a risk level. It only takes one defective $25 printed circuit board to destroy $2,500 worth of perfectly good electronic components.
Qualification Criteria
Strategically, deciding how to qualify new suppliers is the most critical step in the process. Of course, there must be an overriding strategy governing supplier identification and selection, but that would be a whole other column. The underlying tool should be an audit/survey that measures the quality system, financial viability and technology. Audits are frequently based on ISO 9000, which would be preferable if ISO registration is another qualification criterion (which is highly recommended). There should be a re-audit frequency established and some provision for the supplier to provide demonstration of continued capability for the time period between audits. This could be in the form of quarterly Cpk reports, ISO surveillance audit summaries, etc.
What is found too often are that suppliers have been grandfathered onto an AVL because they have always supplied materials, and that no one has ever audited the facility. Or, the only existing control is a self-audit that the supplier completes with no verification (which is probably ok since we all know that no one ever embellishes on their capabilities when filling out one of these!).
Read the full article here.
Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the January 2014 issue of SMT Magazine.
Suggested Items
Indium Corporation, Industry Partners to Showcase Products “Live@APEX”
03/26/2024 | Indium CorporationIndium Corporation®, in cooperation with its industry partners, will feature its proven solder solutions live on the show floor throughout IPC APEX Expo from Apr. 9‒11 in Anaheim, Calif., U.S.
Dymax Will Exhibit Light-Cure Solutions for Today’s Electronics at IPC APEX 2024
03/26/2024 | DymaxDymax, a leading manufacturer of rapid and light-curing materials and equipment, will exhibit at the IPC APEX EXPO 2024 in Anaheim, CA, April 9-11.
Ventec to Launch New Bondply Dielectrics and Value-Added Services at IPC APEX EXPO 2024
03/26/2024 | Ventec International GroupVentec International Group is to reveal new products for advanced signal integrity and thermal performance, and introduce services, during IPC APEX EXPO 2024, April 9-11 on booth # 4309.
Electra Polymers Ltd Expands Manufacturing Capacity, Invests in New Facilities and Talent
03/26/2024 | Electra Polymers LtdElectra Polymers Ltd, a leading provider of coatings for the electronics industry, proudly announces a significant expansion of its manufacturing capacity for inkjet materials. The company is making substantial investments in new facilities, talent acquisition, and cutting-edge laboratory equipment to meet the increasing demand for high-performance functional inkjet materials in the market.
I-Connect007 Editor’s Choice: Five Must-Reads for the Week
03/22/2024 | Nolan Johnson, I-Connect007This week's news feed contains a bunch of big money items, as well as some interesting industrial and technology puzzles to be solved. There’s even some down-home people news from the Dallas SMTA conference held this week. Don’t overlook the latest issue of PCB007 Magazine, either. The topic is sustainability, which is becoming an ecosystem of its own.