SMT (Surface Mount Technology) assembly has been applied in electronics manufacturing for different fields due to its low weight, small size, high density and excellent performance. Therefore, it’s of tremendous significance to pick up a reliable and cost-effective SMT assembly manufacturer as CM (Contract Manufacturer) as far as OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) is concerned.
To have SMT assembly service outsourced in China was a smart choice for OEMs just for the sake of cost reduction. In spite of its advantages, it still sounds like a forced decision in the past, which is especially true when assembly cost is dramatically high in OEM’s land. However, to cooperate with China’s SMT assembly manufacturer is definitely an ideal solution for OEMs in current time from five aspects, which will be discussed in this article.
Reason#1: Low Cost
Although currently there are different drives for OEMs to believe China’s SMT assembly manufacturer, cost concern still tops the list. Nevertheless, the low cost here is never achieved from low quality. It’s been a fixed thought that manufacturing in China is naturally cheap. However, it’s not naturally, but logically.
First, manufacturing has been China’s obvious advantage since long long ago and its direct result is that the manufacturing equipment used for SMT assembly is easy and cheap to get. As a result, the cost for manufacturing line in China is much lower than that in other regions.
Second, China-manufactured machinery has been gradually accepted as accurate, professional and reliable. A documentary called The Pillars of a Great Power displays a lot of machineries made by China that have been widely applied in numerous industries from transportation to oil exploration. Up to now, a great number of machines serving for SMT assembly, like solder paste printer, chip mounter, reflow soldering oven, AOI equipment etc. have been branded in China. Thus, China has been gradually replacing Japan to be a leading provider of high-efficiency and high-accuracy machines to the globe.
Third, as a country with the second largest population in the world, China has such a huge group of staff serving electronics manufacturing. Due to rapid urbanization of China’s countries, a great many young people have converted their identities into workers, which to some extent helps reducing the manufacturing cost in China.
In a word, low cost is the top reason why China’s SMT assembly manufacturer is selected as CM.
Reason#2: Stable Environment
China is among the few countries in the world holding the most peaceful and the most stable political environment. It’s been known that most manufacturing business in modern time is completed in developing countries among which China maintains by no means unchangeable in political environment since the establishment. Politics plays a crucial role in affecting the economy.
Peaceful environment brings forward consistent manufacturing procedure, relatively stable staff participation and regulated lead time. As far as SMT assembly is concerned, it is quite complex and calls for delicate manufacturing procedures, which depends on professional operation done by SMT personnel having received rigorous and standard training. Stable political environment makes it consistently capable in China.
In addition, Chinese government has been playing an active role in international trade and affairs, one belt one road for example, which results in more convenience in terms of all aspects, let alone electronics manufacturing. As a result, more positive policies have been determined to promote more trade opportunities between China and other countries. As a key contributor to world electronics, China has ranked the first in SMT assembly service among Asian countries. The award relies on peaceful and stable environment to much extent.
Reason#3: Rich Personnel and Experience
Just as what is depicted previously, China’s large population leads to a huge group of electronics manufacturing personnel. Such a huge population base definitely prepares a great number of talents for PCB (Printed Circuit Board) assembly, SMT and THT (Through-Hole Technology). They specialize in equipment parameter setting such as reflow/wave soldering temperature, solder paste printing scraper angle, scraping speed and thickness, chip mounting speed etc. In addition, they should feature sufficient knowledge in SMT assembly principles and equipment working logic which derive from either rigorous training or practical experience. More expectedly, they should be capable of forecasting defects that’ll be probably caused during soldering process and of coming up with effective measures to get them defeated.
Due to a large population, China’s SMT assemblers have more opportunities to participate in SMT assembly manufacturing, leading to their extensive SMT assembly experience. The rich SMT assembly experience allows the assemblers to reach higher manufacturing efficiency, higher manufacturing capabilities and shorter lead time. Therefore, SMT assembly service can be outsourced from China owing to its rich personnel and manufacturing experience.
Reason#4: High Quality Guarantee
China is not what it was. Maybe quality was mostly regarded as a joke but it’s not that any longer. China has gradually converted from a manufacturing power into an intelligent power, which means that SMT assembly manufacturing carried out in China is moving towards intelligentization. In addition, since its entrance into WTO (World Trade Organization), China has been striving to reach the international level in SMT assembly level so as to expand their business range. To cooperate with China’s SMT assembler, the following two tips should be kept in mind:
On one hand, test and inspection solutions should be carefully studied. No matter how highly a CM speaks of itself, the straight way to get aware of quality level of SMT assembler is to refer to its inspection measures. Test and inspection contribute a lot to assembled PCB quality control when it comes to SMT assembly service. The commonly-used test and inspection measures include AOI, X-ray inspection, ICT (In-Circuit Test), Flying probe test and function test. If SMT assembler is capable of implementing those tests and inspections and their assembled PCBs pass them, it also indicates that their capabilities are reliable.
On the other hand, prototype is an active way to test the quality of a SMT assembler. PCB prototype and PCBA prototype stands for CM’s electronics manufacturing capability and long-term cooperation expectation. It’s a direct way to testify the quality of their SMT products. As long as prototypes are accepted, standard SMT assemblies can do nothing but cheer you up.
Reason#5: High Efficiency
As far as OEMs are concerned, time to market plays a critical role in the development of electronic products. The faster products enter market, the more quickly return will be obtained. Therefore, high efficiency leads to high return. Have your SMT assembly service outsourced in China, and you’ll win the race of efficiency.
China’s SMT assemblers are capable of reaching high efficiency owing to the following merits:
First, China’s SMT assemblers prepare expedited service if projects are in emergency. It has to be acknowledged that Chinese staff are so hardworking that they’d like to work overtime. As a result, higher efficiency can be achieved.
Second, China features the most flexible and richest express network so that product delivery time can be greatly reduced.
Finally, based on the above depiction, China features the most peaceful environment, which also accelerates the SMT assembly manufacturing efficiency.
