There's a world of manufacturing options out there, literally.  Since the outsourced manufacturing boom of the 90s-00s, the only challenge facing a company looking for assembly electronic solutions is sorting through the many, many options on the table.

For a lot of companies, the options boil down to "who has the lowest prices?" but that's really only the start of the matter.  Sure, there are plenty of assembly plants that will provide what you ask for, more or less, but you can ultimately get far more out of your assembly service without paying too much more money.

With the boom in global electronics manufacturing and sales, it's little wonder that more companies are looking into electronic goods than ever before. Thanks to a world of manufacturing facilities, any design can be brought to market at surprisingly low investment costs.

However, like in any wide-open market, there's also a wide range of quality and services on offer. Too many companies simply look for the cheapest source, at least based on up-front costs, without considering the range of additional services that can ultimately reduce their TCO and boost the project's ROI.

When companies are looking to outsource their Printed Circuit Board (PCB) assembly, especially offshore, they may fail to consider the importance of communication and oversight in these processes. Good PCB design and assembly requires a two-way street, with a partner who's listening to you and your business needs.

If those communications break down, or if your assembly source is so far away that oversight becomes impossible, the chances of something going wrong in the design increase dramatically.

The design of printed circuit boards (PCBs) is one of the most important steps in manufacturing a quality electronic device. The functionality and efficiency of your electronics depend on the design and layout out of the board (or "brain") of the gadget, meaning that nothing can be left to chance. Through careful attention to detail, the board can be designed to meet all product specifications without wasting any space or utilizing excessive components. This enables the device to remain as compact yet information-rich as possible, meeting the demands of the consumer marketplace. But do you know what goes into superior electronics design services? 

As technology continues to evolve, we must work to find ways to keep up with it. Although through-hole mounting or technology was the predominant option for developing printed circuit boards (PCBs) for decades, today's consumer demands require electronics manufacturers to embrace new technologies as a means of developing compact yet highly dense boards. The most popular solution has been surface mount technology.

Technology is always changing, so what does that mean for technology manufacturers and sellers?

It's little wonder than when a company is looking to get into electronics manufacturing, they usually look to hire a manufacturing facility rather than trying to build their own plant. The up-front costs of maintaining a production center are simply too high for most operations to consider, especially if it needs to be versatile enough to handle PCB prototype creation.

This is one area, however, where a business needs to proceed with caution. Once you choose a partner for your PCB assembly, you're putting a lot of trust -and responsibility- in their hands. It's easy for a business to choose manufacturing facilities based solely on low up-front prices, and all too often, costs they hadn't considered began creeping into the mix.

For awhile, it looked like the entire manufacturing industry was going to move abroad for their operations. The promise of super-cheap assembly solutions in China or Vietnam or other low-cost countries lured plenty of businesses overseas. When a company could get manufacturing done for one-fourth – or less – of domestic services, it made a compelling financial argument.

Virtually any business involved in any sort of manufacturing and sales is painfully aware of the role of supply lines in this process. From sourcing the original materials, through their construction, to distribution, and even into post-sale support (like spare parts), supply chains and proper inventory management are at the heart of any and all product sales.