The Chemical Connection: Surface Finishes for PCBs
It’s Only Common Sense: 7 Tips to Focus on What Works
The Marketing Minute: Go Big or Go Home—Long-form Content Is Your Brand’s Best Friend
The Critical Role of Materials
June 19, 2024 | Marcy LaRont, PCB007 MagazineEstimated reading time: 1 minute
Materials and substrates are an ongoing discussion for PCB fabricators today, offering PCB designers and fabricators much more choice than was available two decades ago. When it comes to running a printed circuit board company, material management is a critical piece for operations. When you are doing high mix, lower volumes, material management can be an even greater challenge. This discussion with Anaya Vardya of American Standard Circuits sheds light on best practices, innovative approaches to vendor relationships, inventory management, and panel optimization, highlighting the critical role materials play in the success of electronics manufacturing today.
Marcy LaRont: Anaya, ASC is a high-tech PCB manufacturing facility that works with many different product and material types. What is your approach to material management?
Anaya Vardya: On the supply chain side of material management, we have a large range of materials used for the products we manufacture. For standard FR-4, we are fortunate to have a handful of different material vendors that stock in the Chicago area. This means we can minimize the amount of inventory we're holding inside our facility, which saves space and inventory dollars. We typically have multiple deliveries a week from these suppliers. In the worst case, we can drive over to the supplier and pick up material.
LaRont: Local sourcing is certainly key to just-in-time inventory management if you aren’t holding everything in-house. But what about less standard material types?
Vardya: Beyond FR-4, our strategies for holding stock and managing lead times are, out of necessity, a bit different. Because we have such a wide variance of materials and lead times, we proactively inform our customers of material lead times when we're quoting the job. If a specialty material needs to be manufactured, we determine the manufacturing lead time, shipping strategy, and cost and communicate that at the quote stage. Of course, it's the best information we have at that time. We live in a dynamic world, as you know.
To read this entire conversation, which appeared in the June 2024 issue of PCB007 Magazine, click here.
Share on:
Suggested Items
NUS Physicists Discover a Copper-free High-temperature Superconducting Oxide
03/28/2025 | PRNewswireProfessor Ariando and Dr Stephen Lin Er Chow from the National University of Singapore (NUS) Department of Physics have designed and synthesised a groundbreaking new material—a copper-free superconducting oxide—capable of superconducting at approximately 40 Kelvin (K), or about minus 233 degrees Celsius (deg C), under ambient pressure.
Indium to Showcase Proven EV Products and High-Reliability Alloys at Productronica China
03/26/2025 | Indium CorporationAs a global materials supplier and trusted partner in electric vehicle (EV) and e-Mobility manufacturing, Indium Corporation® is proud to showcase its high-reliability alloys and soldering solutions at Productronica China, March 26-28, in Shanghai, China.
Queen's University Belfast Enhances RF Research with LPKF ProtoLaser R4
03/26/2025 | LPKFThe Centre for Wireless Innovation (CWI) at Queen's University Belfast relies on the state-of-the-art LPKF ProtoLaser R4 to conduct RF research with high-precision structuring of sensitive materials.
SolderKing Enhances Brainboxes' Electronics Manufacturing with Expert Support and Advanced Materials
03/26/2025 | SolderKingIn modern electronics manufacturing, success relies on more than high-quality soldering materials. Technical knowledge and process expertise are just as crucial for achieving consistent results. SolderKing, a leading UK manufacturer, provides both, combining advanced consumables with specialist support to help manufacturers optimise their soldering processes.
Global PCB Connections: A Field Engineer’s Perspective on the Top 10 Trends to Watch
03/27/2025 | Jerome Larez -- Column: Global PCB ConnectionsAs a field application engineer for a major Chinese PCB company, I see firsthand the challenges and, more excitingly, the trends shaping our industry. Talking to engineers, designers, and procurement teams worldwide, one thing is clear: PCBs have come a long way, but we’re barely scratching the surface of what’s possible. Here are 10 trends I believe will define our industry over the next decade.