Transforming Product Design for Electronics Manufacturing

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the manufacturing ecosystem in never-seen-before ways and organizations are doing everything they can to re-establish the supply chain. These unprecedented events have given us a once in a generation chance to transform our manufacturing ecosystem for better. In the last 10 years, supply chains have grown extraordinarily complex. For instance, a recent coverage by one of the global leading media noted that one of the leading manufacturers of ventilators depends on a complex, global supply chain characteristic of our times because a single ventilator requires 1,500 unique parts sourced from 14 different countries. In short, manufacturers are facing difficulties from both inside and outside. [1] Today’s agile and flexible manufacturing requires the manufacturing ecosystem to quickly respond to changing market demands. The traditional approach of the design cycle and trials are no longer possible and rather “ready to roll in a few days” is the trend. Product design needs to integrate both supply chain complexity and the manufacturing process. Picking the right supply chain approach is as important as selecting the manufacturing method to help with fast product ramp-up and reduced time to market.  Product Design Considerations Contract manufacturers with vast experience in product design can be an OEM’s first choice for helping in product design and development at a faster pace. A few activities an OEM should consider when evaluating electronic product design for manufacturing (DFM) services include:

• Design, Component Selection: Ensuring end-of-life (EOL) availability for production quantities, alternative manufacturers for all specified components, BGA vs QFP considerations, eliminating trim pots where possible, and most importantly, design for the environment (recycle, reuse & repair) and sustainability.
• Board Layout Considerations: Component placements, orientation marks on the silkscreen layer, and layers visible on PCB’s or break-offs.
• Board Assembly Manufacturing Process: Workmanship (IPC, military, aerospace, etc), minimizing hand soldering, insertion, and assembly.
• Through-Hole Components: Non-plated tooling holes for automation, DIP components oriented the same way on volume boards, minimizing stand up axial components, minimizing annular rings on through-hole pads, spaced transistor lead layouts, etc.
• Wave Soldered Bottom Side: Optimized SMT wave land patterns, optimized component orientation for SMT components, wave solder shadowing considerations to prevent skips.

There are few other aspects to be considered during a design evaluation, such as board mechanicals, PCB specifications, and testing methodologies, that can help with speedy and agile manufacturing of the products. Backed by 40 Years of Expertise Syrma specializes in accelerated design and development of electronic products through its sheer focus in collaborative product design services, specification development, choosing the right technology, and helping in product realization thereby evaluating design robustness, manufacturability for a reliable long-term product. Syrma’s engineering team is capable of providing the best DFM solutions laying out the way for quick product releases during the development cycle. We contribute our 40 years of design and manufacturing expertise spanning multiple diverse markets, and we look forward to discussing how we can deliver world-class products for OEMs across the globe. We understand our home Indian market, especially its vast regulatory and selling environments. We foster growth opportunities within India through our strong technology incubation ecosystem. We also assist global OEMs seeking to enter the Indian market by leveraging the local supply chain and favorable operating environments for cost reductions. Our flagship Chennai location opened in 2006 and lies within a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) for electronics manufacturing, offering economic incentives for imports and exports. This primary facility is within 90 minutes of the Chennai seaport and 20 minutes to the international airport, with additional road and rail connectivity linking to the rest of India and beyond, as well as infrastructure advantages with faster import and export clearances. We also have labor force availability, both technical and manual, to rapidly scale to client demand. To learn more about this topic, please contact us.