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22 The PCB Design Magazine • November 2014 feature ADDING VALuE TO YOuR DESIGN OuTSOuRCING ExPERIENCE continues Work With EEs to ID Design Constraints Design constraints shouldn't be taken for granted. EEs are accustomed to your special at- tention to layer stackup, high-speed signal treat- ments, current-carrying capacity and manufac- turability. However, many of these features that you implement into design are taken for granted and hardly discussed at all. Will an electronics engi- neer assume that all designers are like you? Remember, an outsourced designer is not necessarily working "down the hall," so to speak. Communication can be complicated by vague ex- planations, misunderstanding and even varying time zones. Design constraints need to be formally listed, if not em- bedded into front-end design tools and templates to clarify what is expected. Define a Set of Deliverables Whether ordering a sim- ple layout or a complete design prototype, your company, especially your procurement folks, will benefit from for- mulating a concise description of what you require from the service provider. A list of important "deliverables" is best de- fined and added to the purchase order for the work being done. Obvious deliverables might be a design layout or finished PCB. But all too often, once a layout or PCB is delivered into the hands of an EE, documentation and archival of important data required to reproduce the design becomes forgotten and somehow unaccounted for. This misstep can cause a catastrophic waste of time if the PCB design ever requires a future change and the service provider has gone out of business. Look at your own design process require- ments. Make sure that every file and document required to reproduce, document or otherwise work on the design is provided by the design service as a deliverable and is archived via your department process immediately upon de- livery. Keep the Wheels Greased It can take a convergence of many factors to establish a successful working relationship with a PCB design service partner. These include time, prototyping budget, contact development, com- munication, maybe some false starts and maybe some trust-building. Once you've estab- lished a successful working relation- ship with an outside PCB design services supplier, it is important to stay in synch. Unless your company periodically practices the process that you've helped them to establish, your efforts could fall by the wayside before the next design overload crisis due to changes in technology, practice or personnel. Pick a project every so of- ten and send it out. Cause your EEs and your purchasing agents to stay connected with your company's design outsourcing resource and process. Yes, the price seems high when it isn't required. But avoid criticism and comparisons of the price paid for work done through an outside design service. Comparisons to the "cost for you to have done it" are irrelevant in times of design overload. Funding an occasional outsourced de - sign project can be budget well spent to ensure that your company's outside design source stays in lock-step with your process and engineering culture until you need them again. There is a saying in the PCB design indus- try: "Given enough time and layers, we can do anything." While layers come at a price, time stands still for no PCB designer. Be ready to partner with an outside design service that can work with you. You might be helping your com- pany buy back time. PCBDESIGN J. Kelly Dack, CiD+, designs PCBs for a large northern Nevada gaming company. he can be reached by email and linkedin. Remember, an outsourced designer is not necessarily working "down the hall," so to speak. Communication can be complicated by vague explanations, misunderstanding and even varying time zones. " "