Beyond Building a Design: Making it Better
Partnering with a customer can result in a better product, with the added benefit of considerable cost savings. This is particularly true when an EMS and their customer put their heads together on a project. Experience and talent combine for a win-win outcome. What’s the downside of a better product at a lower cost when it’s unexpected? In this instance, it was the knowledge and decades of experience of a key engineer at BSU Inc. that was able to not only re-engineer and build an excellent product for a PCBA customer, but also achieve a whopping 25% cost reduction with an improved design that resulted in a smaller PCB size with 100 fewer components in the final product. It’s what every EMS hopes for – a better product from an improved design and delivered on time at a lower cost.
BSU Inc., established in 1989, is an EMS located in Austin, Texas, and specializes in all aspects of Printed Circuit Board Assembly (PCBA) from design to assembly to test, box build, and delivery of commercial and Hi-rel assemblies. Ahmad Chamseddine, President, says, “BSU’s reputation has been built not only on manufacturing capability with complex products, but to provide value-added engineering where customers often rely on us for efficiency of design and build advice. So when one of our customers came to us to create a PCB layout for a new design using their schematic and BOM (Bill of Materials), we put one of our most experienced design engineers Denver Jones on the job.
Denver examined the design at length and began to immediately see some areas where he felt he could improve the circuitry, streamline the PCB architecture, and reduce cost. A simpler design, with fewer components, is often easier to manufacture. Fewer components can mean fewer potential problems in assembly. Denver recalls, “We slightly changed the assembly’s architecture in order to combine a few functions into a more cost-effective SoC (System on a Chip).” This allowed greater consolidation of PCB real estate and combining functions of various assets on the PCB for optimum performance. Denver and his team achieved a reduction and better selection of decoupling capacitors, which had been over-specified, changed operating voltage rails from 3.3V to 2.5 V, and selected more cost-effective power and high speed differential transceivers. The goal was to reduce overall size and complexity of the assembly, increase efficiency, and reduce the per-unit manufacturing cost. With production cost savings per unit, all savings are cumulative, naturally, and therefore significant.
Denver and his team saved the customer money on PCB fabrication as well. “We replaced some of the through-hole connectors with SMT versions that are more manufacturable and lower cost,” he recalls. And, with less copper weight on planes, and reduced the thickness of the boards by 2 layers, achieved a PCB Cost Reduction of $10%.
The savings continued to accumulate. Design for Manufacturing (DFM) changes on component clearances and placement reduced labor by 10%. In the end, the overall average selling price (ASP) reduction in cost to the customer amounted to 25%, a significant savings, and a BOM cost reduction of 35%.
Prior to production, prototypes were successfully validated and tested with no additional board spins required. “Typically, a customer required 2-3 board spins to get design working,” Ahmad Chamseddine said. “Here at BSU, we reduced it to 1 board spin, saving additional engineering CAPEX required for 2 or 4 more boards.” And at the end of the day, the job was delivered on time and passed testing. “In fact, testing went quickly and without concern, making this project an on-time success, and significantly, without changes being required, something almost unheard-of,” he added.
BSU Inc. is a certified Women and Minority Owned Business, ISO 2001:2015 Certified, and ITAR Registered with IPC certified employees. Services include Prototyping, PCB Assembly, Engineering Design Services (EE, ME), High Mix Low to Medium Volume production, Mechanical, Electrical, Cabling and SW/FW programming, Board and Functional Testing, and Global supply chain services, to name a few. In addition to PCBA assembly, BSU also offers box build services, wiring harness assembly, complex and simple cables and mechanical components assembly. BSU Inc’s customers span multiple industries including industrial, IoT, military and high reliability, entertainment, healthcare, education, energy and communications, to name a few. For more information, visit www.bsuinc.com.
