As it has many, many times before, Samsung, the world’s largest electronics company, announced in April that it is expanding.

No, that’s not exactly news, until you look at where it intends to grow: Africa.

And it’s going all in.

Issues that make or break an outsourcing relationship.

Well that didn’t take long.

The ink was barely dry on Bare Board Group’s purchase of Hunter Technology’s printed circuit board fabrication operations before Hunter moved to reacquire the plant. And just like that, BBG’s grand experiment as the only major regional PCB distributor to offer internal manufacturing capability was done.

Inline ICT is not as cumbersome as it used to be, and in the longer run, will help manufacturers save costs.

The idea of operating in-circuit test as part of the surface mount technology line is not new. Options available to volume manufacturers include modifying ICT systems with bridge handlers to receive printed circuit board assemblies from the input line to the tester. Others link test units to increase throughput.