subject: Outsourcing Your Product Assembly Service [print this page] When it comes to the business of mass production, only two factors are important competitiveness and innovation. For a manufacturing company to survive, it should be able to remain ahead of the game by being the first in almost all areas speed, quantity, and quality.
Unfortunately, in order for a manufacturing to stay on top of the game, they need to find ways to optimize production. One of the ways by which this can be done is by outsourcing the product assembly. This does not, however, mean that you can just sign up with the first outsourcing company or contactor. As with anything else, the first thing that you have to consider is your budget. Most sites dedicated to handling product assembly for other companies can give free instant quotes. Make sure that the system would allow you to input as much information as needed in order to get the best quotation.
You should also take into consideration the amount or volume of work that you need the outsourcing company to do. Keep in mind that if you have a low-volume processing, outsourcing your product assembly may not be such a good idea.
If your company is into PCB product assembly service, you might have to check if the contractor or outsourcing firm has the ability to manufacture the boards in the same format as you have. Although the most common format is the Gerber format, there are a number of manufacturers that have their own in-house PCB format.
It is also a good idea to check with your product assembly service provider if you can pull the materials from their inventory or if you have to supply the materials yourself. There are some companies that allow the former. This would save you time but could cost you more. If, however, you have special materials that you need to use for your assembly, you would be better off with just supplying them the needed materials.
There are a number of product assembly service providers in the internet today. To ensure that they are producing high-quality products, check with them how they carry out their quality control as well as quality assurance testing. Although this might mean additional time, it would help give you peace of mind.