PCB Tech - Importance of new product introduction in PCBA manufacturing

The most important and critical content of electronic manufacturing services (EMS) is new product introduction (NPI), which plays an important role in PCBA processing and manufacturing. Good product manufacturing and delivery are inseparable from proper process design, qualified component quality, and good process control and production capacity of the foundry, all of which are attributed to the new product introduction (NPI) management.

Electronic manufacturing service EMS (abbreviation of Electronic Manufacturing Services) is also known as electronic professional manufacturing service ECM (Electronic Contract Manufacturing), which is also translated as professional electronic contract manufacturing service in Chinese. It is an emerging industry, which refers to the provision of manufacturing for electronic product brand owners, Procurement, partial design and logistics and a series of service manufacturers.

Traditional OEM (Original Equipment Manufacture) or ODM (Original Design Manufacturer) foundry services only provide product design and foundry manufacturing, while EMS vendors provide a full-line service model of knowledge and management, which is a higher-level service, Including design and development, production and manufacturing, this of course also includes procurement, quality management and transportation logistics, such as material management, logistics and transportation, and even some of them will help customers sell and provide product maintenance services.

As a developing country, China has become the focus of the rapid development of the electronic manufacturing service EMS industry with its abundant domestic demand market, low labor cost, better supply chain foundation and greatly improved logistics, and it has become the focus of the rapid development of the electronic manufacturing service EMS industry in the world economic market. The role of people is becoming more and more important. The most important and critical content of the electronic manufacturing service EMS is New Product Introduction (NPI), which plays an important role in PCBA processing and manufacturing. Good product manufacturing and delivery are inseparable from proper process design, qualified component quality, and good process control and production capacity of the foundry, all of which are attributed to the new product introduction (NPI) management.

As the saying goes, "Know yourself and the enemy, never end in battle." Before the introduction of new products, the New Product Introduction (NPI) engineers must actively communicate with customers and fully understand the product details and customer requirements. This can help us avoid detours and suffer less losses. Mainly carry out preliminary coordination with the customer’s technical and quality engineers for the PCBA to be processed, and clarify the following information:

(1) The customer's requirements for the appearance quality of the product PCBA, including the cleanliness of the board surface, the degree of PCB discoloration, the degree of PCB deformation, the degree of floating height of through-hole components and the length of pin trimming, the degree of skew of SMD components, and through-holes Soldering through tin of components, etc. Because the appearance inspection standards are difficult to express clearly in words, different inspectors have great differences in the grasp of the appearance inspection standards, which will easily lead to differences between the foundry and the customer when implementing the appearance standards, if it is not fully negotiated in advance. Unanimously, complaints from customers or even batch returns are inevitable consequences. Persuade customers to use physical seal samples or physical pictures plus text to determine the appearance inspection standards, so that the appearance inspection standards can be managed by kanban, which is more intuitive and more maneuverable.

(2) The characteristics and special processing requirements of the customer's new product PCBA, process difficulties, quality control focus, high incidence of bad phenomena, etc. Because focused attention and control can not only reduce the chance of making mistakes, improve product quality, but also effectively reduce the cost of quality control.

New product introduction engineer, NPI engineer, is an indispensable and important position in electronic manufacturing service EMS companies. Engineers are required to have comprehensive skills such as strong design and development capabilities, engineering manufacturing capabilities, and quality management capabilities. The NPI engineer is equivalent to the project chief or project supervisor of some factories. Through this leader, the process management of the enterprise is reengineered, with the purpose of effective product management and control, and the organization of relevant documentary, quality control, production, materials, technical division and coordination, To achieve effective operation of processing and manufacturing.

The introduction of new products should turn customers’ drawings or ideas into products with mature processes, reliable performance, and mass production, so that the leading new products can meet the requirements of customers inside and outside the company, and finally the products can enter mass production smoothly, and mass production Afterwards, it will achieve the best in terms of efficiency and quality; it must publicize and guide the process control points or other precautions of new products, and confirm documents, governance tools and other matters; it must deal with bad problems in proofing and trial production. Carry out continuous improvement, confirm the effectiveness of bad improvement countermeasures, follow up the implementation of relevant countermeasures and track the effect.

New product introduction is the technical control of a product (or called process, project, etc.) from the beginning of R&D activities to the end of mass production activities. NPI engineers are to coordinate the design and development, process quality assurance, and manufacturing, so that the manufacturability design DFM, productivity and quality assurance of the product can be effectively coordinated, so that customers are satisfied with the product quality. In the proofing stage of the import process, NPI engineers must ensure that the production line process configuration is maximized. Through this process, both parties can achieve an intuitive understanding of the product processing to meet the requirements, so that the PCBA processing and manufacturing of the exposed product can be discovered as much as possible during the proofing process. To verify the compliance with the design requirements for manufacturability, set up monitoring points for the quality control of processed products, and feedback the problems and solutions in the proofing process to the customers, and discuss the problem points with the customers for trial production. And clear the obstacles for mass production.

NPI engineers are responsible for the establishment and management of the historical technical archives of new products, which are the source of the correctness of all foundry/manufacturing. The fish-bone schematic process design and review should be carried out from six aspects: human, machine, material, method, environment, and process, including three major aspects: PCBA manufacturability design, special materials, and customer's special requirements. NPI engineers are also responsible for the research on the complex process capability index Cpk (Complex Process Capability index), confirming the extent to which these characteristics meet the specifications, to ensure that the defective rate of the finished product does not meet the specifications is above the required level, as the basis for continuous improvement of the process. PCBA plays an irreplaceable role in processing and manufacturing.

In addition, the introduction of new products must implement the concept of electronic hardcover, that is, to achieve the best processing and manufacturing, and strive to achieve beyond customer expectations, rather than just being made and qualified. Only in this way can we fully discover the problems of customers' design deficiencies, actively supervise their improvements, and reduce the overall cost of subsequent processing and manufacturing.

The research and development cycle of electronic products is getting shorter and shorter, and the varieties are getting more and more. OEMs are required to change the past single-variety and high-volume production mode, because multi-variety, small-batch production in this mode has a longer production cycle and high internal consumption costs, which cannot meet the needs of customers for fast delivery. In the near future, more regional small and medium-sized foundries will appear in China, and more and more foundries will be transferred to inland industries. Their survival and development depend on customized products of multiple varieties and small batches, and even prototype manufacturing. This requires more comprehensive NPI engineers to work closely with customers.

The role of NPI in PCBA processing is becoming more and more important. It is necessary to fully realize the leadership effect of NPI. The more NPI engineers that an electronic manufacturing company has, the easier it is to develop and grow.