Manufacturers and designers should work together from the early design phase for optimal product development. Involving manufacturing partners early allows leveraging their expertise to design for factors like assembly, testing, compliance and supply chain management. The six key areas an early manufacturing partner is involved in include PCB layout, supply chain planning, test engineering, and ensuring support through the product lifecycle. Collaborating closely between design and manufacturing leads to successful products developed on time and cost.

1. Manufacturing
Manufacturers and designers
should work hand in hand
When the manufacture of a product is outsourced, manufacturing partners need to be involved
early in the design phase for a successful product to evolve, at an optimal cost and timeframe
By SA Srinivasa Moorthy
W
ith globalisation and the
focus on optimising cost
and time, the electronics
industry was the first to outsource
most of its manufacturing. The pri-
mary drivers were the suboptimal
utilisation of the manufacturing
facility of the product companies as
well as the need for addressing global
markets. The big product companies
were the first to embrace outsourc-
ing, and the practice slowly spread
to the small and medium companies.
With the emergence of Asia-centric
manufacturing locations like China,
Vietnam, Taiwan, Philippines and
India, almost 90 per cent of electron-
ics manufacturing has moved into such cases, product parts that have Types of outsourcing
outsourced mode. Only products no IP value are outsourced and the There is a subtle difference be-
that have intellectual property (IP), product companies do the integra- tween complete outsourcing and
are critical, and need to be protected tion and product support. Figure 1 what original design manufacturers
for some reason, are manufactured shows the evolution of the different (ODM) do. In the case of ODMs,
by the product companies. Even in stages of outsourcing. typically, the product is designed as
per the ODM vendor’s specification
Figure 1: Evolution of the different stages of outsourcing
and invariably only the label on the
End to End by ODM box changes. These are called as
‘white label’ products. When com-
plete design and manufacturing is
Outsourced Manufacturing Type I outsourced, product specifications
are still owned by the product
owners and the manufacturing
Outsourced Manufacturing Type II partner only does the design and
manufacturing.
Manufacturers’ involvement
Complete Outsourcing C2M
A manufacturing partner needs to be
involved early in the design phase in
order to develop a successful product
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2. Manufacturing
at an optimal cost and time frame. the usage of the product; and the end owners customise the activities as per
While complete outsourcing (both of life disposal, or how the product is their needs. An important aspect of PLC
design and manufacturing) will lead to disposed of after it ceases to be of use. is the six stages shown in Figure 2, go-
efficient design, it needs a fair amount If a product is to be made envi- ing from the top to the bottom. These
of maturity from the product company ronmentally friendly or if it has to stages are not fixed; in fact, companies
to deal with this. Second, when the meet global environmental standards, that do inhouse product development
product involves a good amount of it has to happen by design and this and manufacturing have fewer stages.
IP, it is prudent to keep the design underlying environmental conscious- Some of these processes can overlap,
function inhouse but outsource the ness has to be incorporated right too. For example, design, engineering
manufacturing. In this mode, the early from the design phase. The design and new product introduction (NPI) are
involvement of the manufacturing process should address the above overlapping processes, especially since
partner is very advantageous for the items which typically impact the nowadays, implementation and NPI
product’s development. product’s environmental friendliness tend to get executed concurrently too.
or its compliance to environmental
Outsourcing issues standards. Most of these aspects need Product development flow
Complete outsourcing of a product tight coupling with the manufactur- Let us understand the flow of the
will be successful only if the product ing process as well as manufacturing different processes throughout
development team understands the partner’s involvement. That is why the lifecycle of the product, which
outsourcing process well. Other than the early involvement of the manu- involves both development and
the technical aspects, cultural aspects facturing partner (EMPI) is crucial. manufacturing. In electronics prod-
also impact the success of outsourc- uct development, the process starts
ing. One of the most common causes Product lifecycle at the concept phase and progresses
for heartburn is when product speci- Thorough knowledge of the product right up to the product getting dis-
fications are not frozen early in the lifecycle (PLC) is very important, so that posed of at the end of its life. If the
design cycle but keep changing during it’s easily understood as to when and manufacturing centric activities
the design phase. This would probably where the manufacturing partner can are executed along with the design
be acceptable when the product is help. The PLC covers all the activities phase, it reduces time. This is where
designed in-house but will not work of a product, starting from the concept the EMPI helps.
in the outsourced model. Failure to phase to the product being retired and One of the biggest advantages
understand aspects like this invariably disposed of. Most product companies’ of identifying the manufacturing
leads to strained relationships early PLC is based on their requirements partner early in the product design
in the project and in most cases the and the development process. Product phase is that it allows the team to
projects fail. To some extent, this is
Figure 2: Six stages of product lifecycle
true even for pure play manufactur-
ing outsourcing, where the design is
assumed to have been frozen.
Impact of
environmental laws
With the ever increasing conscious-
ness about environment protection,
it has become paramount that every
new product meets a plethora of en-
vironmental friendly standards. There
are four important components in a
products entire lifecycle that have an
impact on the environment in which
the product will be used in. These
are—the raw material used in the
product; the manufacturing process;
www.electronicsb2b.com Electronics Bazaar • August 2011 • 3

3. Manufacturing
Figure 3: The sequence of product development phases
Figure 4: Manufacturing Partner Responsibilities ers never factor the PCB layout into
the product’s design. When they
design, the physical size of the PCBs
is factored in with the assumption
that the rest will be addressed by
PCB manufacturing. However, this
is not sufficient, as understanding
PCB fabrication and the customised
processes that each PCB fabricator
uses is important, and can avoid
additional work later, or the sub-
optimal usage of PCB real estate. One
of the key aspects that most design-
ers forget is that when the product
is in large volume production, PCBs
are panelised (multiple PCBs in one
leverage the partner’s experience ing partner is involved early in the large standard PCB size). Unless this
and resources. Identifying those design stage. panelling aspect is factored into the
responsible for each phase of the de- While there are a multitude of PCB’s design, the cost may not be
velopment activities depends on the activities starting from the concept optimal. EMPI helps to optimise this.
nature and depth of outsourcing. For phase to product withdrawal in a The second important aspect in
a successful product, the entire team products development cycle, there the PCB design is the DFx (where x
has to work together, as the product are six key elements that EMPI stands for assembly, manufacturing,
progresses from the concept phase to brings in, which helps make the testing, and compliance).
manufacturing. As the development product a success. Design for assembly (DFA) needs
progresses, the responsibility of the to be addressed in the PCB design
design team reduces gradually, while Six elements of EMPI (layout) phase. Manufacturing part-
the ownership of the manufacturing PCB layout and fabrication: The ners, based on their production line
team increases. This transition will first of the six elements of EMPI is capabilities, have certain guidelines
be smooth only if the manufactur- the PCB layout. Most of the design- and checklists for PCB design by
4 • Electronics Bazaar • August 2011 www.electronicsb2b.com

4. Manufacturing
using them yield in the assembly in reducing the complexity, cost and circuit due to the complex design
line, which can be near 100 per cent. time. This is especially true when the of integrated circuits (ICs), product
Design for testing (DFT) depends PCBs use mixed technology (SMT and design to a large extent has become
on the test equipment that the manu- leaded parts). The fully automated pro- more of an engineering exercise,
facturing partners use. In the design cess can be a challenge, and needs the where the so called ‘design’ is basi-
phase, typically, the manufacturing manufacturing partners to examine the cally engineering the product to meet
partner has to help in analysing design and make the appropriate modi- the manufacturing standards’ com-
the test coverage of a PCB and also fications in their assembly process. pliance requirements. In areas like
recommend how to achieve close Supply chain and component consumer electronics and network-
to 100 per cent test coverage. This engineering: The third and the most ing equipment, most product owners
is vital because the test equipment important element in the EMPI is the now focus on the software rather
used in the manufacturing line may integration of the supply chain. Just than spending time in developing the
be different for different partners, selection of a part alone does not end hardware. It is in this situation that
apart from differing in capability. the designer’s responsibility. In fact, involving the manufacturing partner
Design for compliance (DFC) will with globalisation, rapid obsolescence early enables the product companies
ensure the products meet global com- and electronic components being to quickly roll out the product.
pliance standards (like FCC/VCCI/CE, traded like commodities, their con- Product support, test and re-
etc). Since compliance is affected by tinuous availability is of paramount pair and logistics: Last of the six
design and manufacturing, designing importance. Added to this, develop- elements is support and logistics.
for compliance is key for the success of ing custom parts and ensuring that Support phase is critical for the
the product. Here again, working with the vendors produce it at a low cost scaling up of volumes. In the initial
the manufacturing partner is crucial to without breaks in supply, is another phases when the volumes are low,
ensure the product meets compliance challenge. Involving the manufactur- low yields can still be managed with
requirements. ing partner early in the game will en- reworks. However, as the volumes
PCB assembly: Involving the sure that when the product is in high increase, it can lead to choking of the
manufacturing partner early helps in volume production, the availability line, unless issues are sorted out by
ensuring the assembled PCBs deliver of components does not become an the design team. Some of the manu-
100 per cent yield. Inputs that ensure issue. An added advantage is the low facture support issues that need to
100 per cent assembly yield will be price that manufacturing partners get be addressed are manufacture yield
addressed in the PCB layout phase. due to the high volumes. management, alternate component
During the assembly phase, involv- Test engineering is a key activity identification, test efficiency im-
ing the manufacturing partner helps in the manufacturing of a product. provement, etc.
It is important that the products test Gone are the days when out-
Figure 5: Six elements of early
strategy is well addressed to ensure sourcing manufacturing used to
manufacturing partner involvement
the product leaves the be thought of as a ‘fire and forget’
assembly line fully tested option. With the increase in globali-
PCB Layout
& so that it will not fail in sation, the push towards effective
Fabrication the field. Involving the utilisation of the capital invested
Product manufacturing partner and reduced time to market, unless
Support Test & PCB
Repair and Assembly allows the designers to manufacturing is thought of as a
Logistics get an insight into how design activity, effective product
EMPI products are tested, and development will be elusive. Design-
Elements will optimise the cost and ers and product companies need to
Systems time involved in testing look at manufacturing outsourcing
Engineering Supply Chain
& and Component the product. in a holistic process rather than a
Electronic Engineering System engineering standalone assembly job.
Packaging
and electronic packag-
Test
Engineering ing: With the emergence The author is vice president, design engi-
of devices, vendors pro- neering and head, India Design Center,
viding the basic reference Sanmina-SCI Technology India Pvt Ltd.
www.electronicsb2b.com Electronics Bazaar • August 2011 • 5