11 Effective Ways to Cut PCB Assembly Costs Without Sacrificing Quality

Find a Professional and Reliable PCB Assembler

Yes, it does need a lot of effort and time, but it will be worth it.

While researching, you need to look into the certificates, the quality of the equipment, components procurement service, lead time, quotation rate, manufacturing abilities, price, and the minimum volume of orders.

Choosing professional PCB manufacturing services can simplify this process by providing reliable options that meet these essential criteria.

Optimize the PCB Layout Design

You must perform the design for manufacturing (DFM) process before starting the actual PCB manufacturing.

This check will inspect whether the PCB assemblers can naturally deploy the PCB layout design. Therefore, to cut the PCB assembly cost, make sure to use the free-of-cost DFM services provided by some PCB assemblers.

To decrease the PCB assembly cost of bare PCBs, consider the following points:

1. Via technology: For cheap PCB assembly, use fewer vias, including micro-vias, buried vias, and blind vias.

2. The number of layers: The PCB assembly cost will increase if you add layers.

3. Shape and size: Small PCBs don’t always mean a low-cost PCB assembly, but choose the right size. Furthermore, using PCB boards‘ standard shapes, such as rectangles or squares, may cut the PCB assembly cost.

4. Surface finish: Select the surface finish after going through its pros and cons.

Properly Label the Designators

The reference designators explicitly recognize the parts on the printed circuit board. It would help if you ensured they are transparent and placed near their associated components.

This will ensure that you get a cheap PCB assembly. The PCB assemblers will need to go through a hassle-free setup process.

Further, the problems associated with the manual placement of components also diminish.

Panelize the PCB

It is an excellent idea to produce PCBs in panels if you need thousands or more of them. This will significantly reduce the PCB assembly cost and increase its efficiency.

Since every PCB will have multiple iterations in one panel, the required runs will also be reduced.

The presence of fiducial markers in the PCB panels will ensure the accuracy and orientation of the pick-and-place stage.

Put SMT Components on One Side of the PCB

If you place surface-mount devices on both PCB surfaces, you increase the PCB assembly cost. You may need to place the SMD components on one side of the PCB.

This will ensure that the PCB has to go through the pick-and-place process only once.

The number of iterations will be one rather than two, reducing the stencil cost.

Make a Complete and Effective Bill of Materials (BOM)

You would already know that BOM consists of a full list of items, raw materials, components, assemblies, etc. It is made for manufacturing the product.

It is not always true that making the BOM is more straightforward than generating a Gerber file. PCB assemblers always find more errors in BOM files than in Gerber files.

Develop a Clear Procurement of Components

If you are an engineer running a small business, checking the project schedule and regulating your budget may not be straightforward.

In this case, it may be smart to depend on the PCB assembler to reduce the PCB assembly cost. PCB assemblers are also looking for long-term clients so that they may be more friendly with you.

The components of distributors of franchises also have good relationships with PCB assemblers.

So, you can trust the PCB assembler to get the electronic components at a wholesale rate. It will be less than the selling rate.

If you have any doubts, you can also ask for an invoice from distributors of franchises. The PCB assemblers will surely provide you with one. Hence, this is another effective way of reducing the PCB assembly cost.

Remove the Tiny Passive Packages From your PCB Design

Another way to reduce the PCB assembly cost is to eliminate small passive boxes from the PCB design. If you switch from 0201s to 0402s, the change may look small, but it can reduce PCB assembly costs by 5-10 %.

Moreover, substituting lead-less components like BGAs and QFNs with QFPs, which have legs, can also reduce the overall price.

Adjust the Lead Time and Order Volume

Adjusting the lead time is a significant problem, as its calculations can be confusing.

You should not be allured by the promising lead times advertised by the PCB assemblers because each of them may have a different definition of the lead time.

Hence, you need to ensure that you are familiar with the starting time, payment day, order day, and arrival day.

In general, the PCB assembly cost is lower if the lead time is high.

Don’t Take Inspection for Granted.

Are you wondering about the association between PCB assembly cost and examination?

Usually, the implementation of control increases the value of the PCB assembly.

However, we aimed to reduce the PCB assembly cost without compromising on quality.

So, that is where the check comes in handy.

It plays a crucial role in making sure that you don’t lose the quality of your PCB.

Give Your PCB Assembler Enough Turnaround Time

When you are ordering PCBs online, you will also see the option of turnaround time.

Selecting different turnaround times will give you different PCB assembly costs.

If you give your PCB assembler enough turnaround time, you may be saving the PCB assembly cost.

Therefore, it may not be smart to select a fast turnaround time if it is not ultimately necessary.