Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

It’s Only Common Sense: Respect Your Board Builder

Do you know how PCBs are built? Do you know how to buy them? Do you know the difference between a great PCB supplier and a lousy one? Does your company hate buying PCBs and dealing with PCB shops, equating them to dealing with your local DMV, or worse yet, the IRS? If this sounds familiar, then I have news for you—it could very well be your fault.

If you’re done having an apoplectic fit, take a deep breath and read on. Here are four guidelines that, if followed diligently, will ensure a strong, productive relationship with your PCB vendors:

1. R-E-S-P-E-C-T: That’s right, respect. I have been around PCB shops for many years, and one thing is obvious—despite being the most intensely complicated link in the electronics food chain, PCB shops receive the least amount of respect. PCB shops come behind vendors, assembly companies, and designers who are taught to never listen to PCB shop engineers because they "don’t know what they’re doing.” Overall, PCB shops come in dead last when it comes to others respecting their technology.
2. Learn the product: Take the time to walk through a board shop and learn how a PCB is built. Go on the $5 tour, not the nickel tour, so you can gain a better understanding of what it takes to build any board—even a 28-layer blind-and-buried via board. You will be impressed. I guarantee that you will have a newfound respect for what shops do to build just one board, let alone hundreds and thousands of boards. You might also learn something that will make you a better vendor, contract manufacturer, or designer.
3. Value what they do: Once again, the more knowledge you have about building circuit boards, the more you will value what PCB builders do. Remember how important PCB builders are to your success. You cannot assemble PCBs without the boards on which to put components, deliver your end product without boards, or complete any hot project without getting your boards on time. Value what your board builder does for you.
4. Create a true partnership: Unfortunately, until now, the word “partnership” has instilled fear and anger in PCB shops. When a customer starts talking partnership, most board shops want to run for the hills due to painful histories. Years ago, IBM loaded shops with thousands—if not millions—of boards for their new personal computers in the spirit of partnership, only to later cancel millions of dollars in orders, which bankrupted many of those shops. Additionally, Intel famously created a partnership with two of America’s largest shops and had them invest their own money in developing a very technical process for a difficult board. Later, Intel broke their promise and took the process they developed together and took their business offshore, which left the two shops high and dry. Therefore, if you approach a shop in the spirit of partnership, it must be a true partnership where both parties benefit.

In the spirit of under-promising and over-delivering, I’ll add one more tip—perhaps the most important of all:

5. You get what you pay for: Stop beating the heck out of PCB shops over prices. If you have any pride in your product, you will want to use the best possible PCBs available on the market today, which will not be the cheapest. If you want the cheapest PCBs money can buy, you will get inferior ones. If you are going to put these boards in your product and call it “the best on the market,” good luck with that. When you price PCBs, take into consideration the value of receiving the boards on time and defect-free, and the technical expertise you are buying. Remember that your dollars are allowing your vendor to stay in business and be equipped to take care of all your PCB needs today and into the future. Consider how valuable this will be completing costing exercises.

By following these guidelines and taking the time to understand how a PCB is built, you will develop a strong relationship with your PCB builders. And who knows? You might even become partners.

One last piece of news (warning—product plug ahead!) is this: Prototron Circuits recently launched its first book: The PCB Designer’s Guide to… Producing the Perfect Data Package. Written by Mark Thompson—industry guru and engineering support and CID+ at Prototron Circuits—this book will become the newest addition to I-Connect007’s micro eBook series. It is available for free download; just click here. I expect that this book, which I had the privilege of reading and reviewing, will become one of the most downloaded eBooks yet. If you are serious about creating the best, most perfect data packages available today, do yourself a favor. Download and read this book. It’s simple—the better the package, the better the board.

It’s only common sense.

Dan Beaulieu is president of D.B. Management Group.