Gary Comerford, Operations Director, has worked for DSL for 13 years. After starting life at DSL as Production Manager responsible for everything coming in and going out, in 2019 he became Operations Director, which means that everything post-sales is Gary’s responsibility, including quality, purchasing and supply management.
Gary also works closely with our customers on prototypes – a crucial element of electronic product design. When you design a new product, it is critical that prototypes are produced to prove the design against the client’s product requirements. This stage also helps to highlight unanticipated technical and design issues.
In the latest DSL Podcast, Sales Manager Tom sat down with Gary with talk through the prototype process. You can listen to the podcast here, or read the summary below.
What is a Prototype?
Even the very best designs need prototyping. It is a small batch of the product, usually 5 to 10 of, and used to prove the design against the specification. This stage of the process should highlight any issues within that design and these can be corrected before moving into either a pre-production or production run.
Designing can be considered an art form, albeit with pre-defined rules. It is a bringing together of different components that are laid out on a board with underlined tracks to fulfil a function. Even the best designers in the world have fallen foul to incorrect information set out in component datasheets. This in one of the reasons it is ALWAYS advisable to prototype.
What are the main reasons for increased unit pricing when prototyping?
You may have a unit price in mind when designing a product, and then when you get to prototyping there’s a jump in costs for these smaller quantities.
Any product manufacture will attract a number of costs such as one-off set-up fees for machinery, as that machine will need setting up. This set up can take many hours, the cost for this time will be amortised into the unit cost. A smaller quantity batch will attract a higher amortised cost compared to a run of thousands.
Due to SMT (Surface Mount Technology) lines requiring components lead ins via the feeders component attrition (components feed into the machine but not used) forms part of the units cost. As with machine set up costs, component attrition is amortised over the batch being produced and so will drive up the cost of a small prototype batch.
PCBs and components purchased at low quantities will also be at a higher cost when compared to buying in production volumes. This will also cause an uplift in the prototypes price. PCB speed will also have a dramatic effect on this aspects price.
Buying components in advance
The current market – the component shortage – means that some components are out of stock and on very long lead times. All clients are encouraged to purchase in advance to avoid manufacturing delays and in some instances, brokers will need to be approached (this also leads to increases in cost). Having the kit in hand certainly speeds things up.
It is still looking like late next year for the component shortage to settle down. And even when it does, the landscape may look a little different in terms of the way manufacturers may sell to the market.
For the time being, a traceable part that you can trace all the way back to source, to the manufacturer, is the safest option. As the world’s component stock becomes tighter, companies can become desperate in an effort to keep their product lines moving and try non-traceable parts and take risks. But all that glitters isn’t gold. If you find a website selling 1000’s of components that no one else has, question it. To de-risk it, you could put a small order in to test them. Don’t spend thousands on a big batch of components you’re not sure of. Some risks pay off, some don’t.
If you source from a UK component manufacturer and you have problems, you can visit them. If you are considering an overseas company, you need to look more closely at supplier management in the early days of the relationship and consider visiting the manufacturer so you can see for yourself that they can deliver what they offer.
All of this highlights the importance of testing. Remember, prototyping saves time and money in the long term. Best to irradicate any issues on a small quantity rather than thousand.
For more about prototyping and electronic design services, contact the DSL team to find out how we design through collaboration with our clients.