Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1518339
APRIL 2024 I SMT007 MAGAZINE 37 agency documentation. When shipping a finished product out into the field, you have to meet all the safety standards that go along with that product. With electronics, almost every single product has some sort of safety protection. In that case, we had to make sure we were in full compliance with safety agency specifications. e other major requirement is cosmetics. If your end prod- uct is going directly into the field, you have to make it look pretty. If it's a subassembly going inside some- thing else, it doesn't need to be pretty every time. Solder joints don't need to look picture- perfect; at the end of the day, they just need to function. But when you ship that final finished product, it must be pristine. For a typical EMS supplier, the difference between box builds for a circuit board assembly and a final assembly is that you have to understand the final cosmetic specification. What are the visual specification processes and criteria for you to be successful? It's not as simple as it looks. When it came to understanding these new criteria, how much help was your customer? ey pointed us to experts they've used, and certain standards. It's great when the drawing says, "Build to this standard." In this case, we took on a whole portfolio of products. Some were designed within the last two or three years, and the documentation was great. Other doc sets are for products designed 20 or 30 years ago. Well, standards change over time. Even design requirements change. So, what looked good as a design package 30 years ago doesn't look so good as a design package today. What are the cautionary points? What's your advice for catching pitfalls? Make sure you understand all the product and safety agency requirements. Know the indus- try-wide specifications for everything you're building, whether it's a printed circuit board assembly or a wire harness. at skill needs to be a core competency. Everything is built on industry standards; you build this subassem- bly to this standard, and you're good. When you get into product assembly and box build, you encounter unique product requirements for every single product built by every single OEM. Make sure you understand the individ- ual product requirements for that OEM. It's critical. When we talk to the typical EMS provider, they say managing unique product requirements is just a normal part of doing business. But you're saying that box build is even more so. Yes. Circuit board assemblies, wire harnesses, cables, etc. Each product comes with its own files: Gerber, CAD, and all those types of things. Each one is custom, so there are indi- vidual requirements. But it's on a different level when it's a product assembly because now you're building more than customer files. You're truly building to industry standards and specifications, safety agency requirements, and governmental regulations. Every EMS provider would say every standard is unique, but with box builds and product assembly, it is more. ere is a different level of requirement.