----- Original Message ----- From: "Adeel Malik" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "'Protel EDA Forum'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, October 04, 2002 1:37 PM Subject: [PEDA] Important Factors determining the cost of PCB Population
> Hi All, > The recent thread on "Board Population Houses" has prompted me to > ask this question. Can someone tell me what are the Major factors that > contribute to the "Board Population Cost" charged by the vendors. The cost > will of course include the no. of SMD and Insertion-Mount components and > their specific package type, but I want to get somewhat a generic idea as to > how the Vendors charge their customers and how this cost can be minimized by > ensuring to some guidelines, in the early phase of design. Of course this is more or less dictated by your board function and end use / volume. You should have most of these in your list of design objectives, final format, product spec & target market cost as to what DFM rules you apply. If it is possible to have a design review, or just a sit down discussion with your assembly house, that should cover most of your issues. Just remember that not all CEMs will support the same rules. BUT, before you spend a lot of time with these guys, do a proper capabilities assessment yourself on the assembly house itself. Companies who are better equipped are not necessarily more expensive as they can be more efficient (less overheads attached to labour rates). Do not waste your time with any houses who believe that they are more important than the customer (there are many that do) as if any problems are encountered, you will get little support. Most important thing is that if you have a $200 board, you will only make 20 of them, don't spend 3-5 days of hard work to get the cost to $199 each! or you will not be doing yourself any favours. An example would be if you incorporated a lot of glue logic to PLD and saved say 20 placements, you might have saved $0.35 in place costs but the PLD costs a $1, but if you need to do this to cut board area to meet product specs, then so be it. Most of the time, the assembly cost itself (exclude setup & test) contributes very little to the overall cost of the bare board itself. Sorry if it is not what you want to hear, but as vendor capabilities & charge matrices vary so much, it is difficult to answer so generically. Best to ask the CEM's that question directly, do not be afraid to ask really blunt questions, after all, they are there to offer a service to you. Some items were covered by many people here in a thread related to Protel pick & place file formats. You should search the archives for these. Best Regards John A. Ross RSD Communications Ltd 8 BorrowMeadow Road, Springkerse Industrial Estate Stirling, Scotland FK7 7UW Tel (Office) +44 [0]1786 450572 Ext 225 Tel ( Lab ) +44 [0]1786 450572 Ext 248 Fax +44 [0]1786 474653 GSM +44 [0]7831 373727 Email [EMAIL PROTECTED] WWW http://www.rsd.tv ========================================== > Regards, > Adeel Malik * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * To post a message: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * * To leave this list visit: * http://www.techservinc.com/protelusers/leave.html * * Contact the list manager: * mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * * Forum Guidelines Rules: * http://www.techservinc.com/protelusers/forumrules.html * * Browse or Search previous postings: * http://www.mail-archive.com/proteledaforum@techservinc.com * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
