Perhaps it's due to the last decades' rush for outsourcing, but a lot of people think that an electronics assembly partner is nothing but a hired plant for stamping out parts. While this may be true for some cut-rate overseas plants, the truth is that domestic assembly solutions can be your all-in-one source for bringing new products to market.
When the assembly plant is local -or at least in the same hemisphere- you can collaborate much more closely with them, working on designs and improvements to create better products. Robust ongoing support and even post-sale services are usually options as well.
Reshoring is becoming a major force in today's manufacturing, and there's an entire list of reasons why...
Reasons To Hire Assembly Solutions That Are Close To Home
1 - More certifications.
Most American plants have better oversight, tighter workplace regulations, and more certifications in place than their overseas counterparts. You can choose manufacturers with legitimate industry certifications that guarantee their products meet or exceed every demand you've placed on them.
Plus, there's the matter of the workforce. Have you noticed that every time investigators find maltreatment at FoxConn, their customers pay the price? The lack of regulation in overseas business make it nearly impossible for an American company to truly know what's going on. In today's business world, that's a recipe for ongoing PR nightmares.
2 - Full Design Services
Most overseas assembly plants have a very Jack Webb attitude towards manufacturing: Just the schematics, ma'am. You give them plans and they give you products. That's it.
A domestic partner, one you can communicate with in the same time zone, can work with you directly to refine existing designs or even create entirely new ones. They have specialists on staff looking to make every design better based on the equipment they utilize.
Assembly solutions using state-of-the-art equipment and modern SMT processes can usually optimize your designs in the R&D phase to take them beyond your own engineers' dreams.
3 - Extensive Prototyping and Testing
Prototyping is one of the more expensive aspects of product development, but it's absolutely necessary to create a quality product today. Users tend to be, well, highly creative in how they use their electronics, and you need to be prepared for mistreatment.
Plus, the target audience makes a big difference here. Products aimed at children need to be better-built than products for adults, as a simple example. If you're making a video game for five year olds, will it stand up to the abuse they can dish out without becoming a safety hazard?
Good prototyping and testing services guarantee that can happen. They let you release a product with confidence that it will live up to warranty guarantees, and establish your reputation as a quality manufacturer.
4 - Optimized Parts Fulfillment
Another area where a full-service assembly service pays off is in parts ordering and fulfillment. Based on tests, you're going to end up with a good idea of where the "weak spots" in the design are, or components which are more likely than others to need replacing.
Based on this, your manufacturing partner can help recommend parts stocking and pre-ordering which will guarantee you can fulfill warranty issues at a minimum of cost.
Some assembly services even offer full post-sale customer support since, after all, no one can diagnose product problems better than the group that created the product.
5 - Short Supply Lines, Faster Turnaround
Domestic partners work with domestic suppliers to create short supply lines which save time and fuel throughout the process. Customers can get units or parts more quickly, while everyone pays less in shipping. This also makes it much easier to shift those supply lines, if your needs change.
Overseas production tends to lock people into months-long supply chains, which can become a serious detriment in a fast-changing world.
Want more information? Contact ZenTech today for a free consultation!
