How to put electronics on production: analysis of stages and tasks

We are continuing a series of publications on the development and production of sophisticated modern electronics. The time has come for one of the most interesting topics. Today we talk about mass production. For the implementation of such a task, we need the right specialists, careful planning, component procurement, tooling, testing organization, installation, packaging, accounting, repair, delivery ... This is a big topic, so we will focus only on the most important issues:

• Who thinks about the production of electronics? Let us explain why almost all players in the electronics market take into account production issues in their work: start-ups and mature companies.
• What are the stages of the process of commercial production? Let us see what the scope of work will be in the project. Briefly and point by point.
• Who participates in production projects? We list the companies that are needed to organize production.

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Who thinks about the production of electronics?

An individual entrepreneur or a startup takes into account the requirements of commercial production, even if he plans to sell his device at the development stage. After all, the potential cost of the project is significantly reduced if it cannot be produced on the basis of available technologies.

The most complete understanding of all stages and potential risks of production are mature companies with experience in the production and supply of a popular product. However, even if they have their own production base and a team of specialists, production issues have to be solved anew for each new project. For example, the existing production base of the company may not correspond to the technologies of a new development, or it may be occupied by another product in demand, or the company's contractors may implement a specific project cheaper and more qualitatively.

Thus, a new device is a fresh analysis of production capabilities, regardless of whether the product company has its own production site.

What are the stages of the process of commercial production?

The process of commercial production can be divided into the following basic steps and tasks:

1. Adaptation of the created device for mass production and to the requirements of a particular manufacturing plant. The development of the case, hardware and software platform is not everything, even if during the project prototypes were created (we already wrote about them in more detail ), the adaptation stage is still necessary. After all, the technology of production of prototypes is significantly different from the technology of mass production, which begins with the launch of the "installation" party. After debugging of technical processes there is an increase in production volumes.
   
2. Ensuring the production of the necessary components: boards, electronic components, housing parts, packaging materials, etc. This process should be clearly linked to the timing, the existing storage system and production needs.
   
3. Production and transportation of printed circuit boards. For some projects, simple and inexpensive motherboards will work, for others, you will have to order the production of high-precision circuit boards based on the latest technologies.
   
4. Preparation and adjustment of technological equipment, this multi-step process will ensure the highest quality production with the minimum number of technological operations.
   
5. Installation of electronic components. As a rule, 85–98% of assembly operations are automatic; manual installation is used in case of impossibility or high cost of introducing automatic processes.
   
6. Quality control. This procedure is carried out at each stage of production, according to its results, analysis, elimination of defects and perfection of the process are carried out.
   
7. Production of tooling for enclosures and specialized components of electronic devices. As a rule, this is a very expensive stage.
   
8. Production and delivery of body parts, as well as specialized components.
   
9. Assembling the device according to the instructions. This is done by pre-trained workers.
   
10. Software installation and functional testing. First comes the firmware of the test program and the execution of tests, in case of success - the installation of working software.
    
11. Monitoring the yield of products, collecting data for statistics and repair (if necessary). Thanks to the labeling of the device, you can keep statistics, localize problem areas and minimize the rejection rate.
    
12. Marking Each device receives an individual number, it can be used to determine where the product is currently located and what work has already been done with it. If the device gets into a marriage, the marking allows you to know at what stage the failure occurred.
    
13. Production of packaging, individual packaging of finished devices.
    
14. Group packaging of products, transportation to the warehouse of sale.

All these stages and tasks are usually distributed among the various project participants.

Who participates in production projects?

Let us see who can perform tasks that arise at various stages of production:

1. The company-owner of the new device is, as a rule, the main customer of the entire project, as well as the related goods and services.
2. Own production company or a third-party factory for the production of electronics.
3. Electronics design centers and other engineering companies that prepare design documentation for mass production compile and optimize the bill of materials (BOM), etc.
4. PCB Suppliers. After all, even with its own production, the company orders the production of boards separately.
5. Suppliers of electronic components, they supply the production of the necessary components.
6. Contract manufacturers who make body parts and other specialized components.
7. Installation organizations with quality control and other specialized manufacturing companies.
8. The carrier, he is responsible for transporting finished products to the warehouse or to retail chains.
   

If a company owning a new electronic product itself organizes production, it has to coordinate the work of all the listed organizations and specialists, set deadlines and assign responsibility. Even in the absence of its own production base, the company can take over some of the tasks. For example, it can select suppliers of components, send its engineers to production to organize testing and quality control, rent its own platform for collecting devices from ready-made assembled boards and enclosures (note: automated assembly lines work only on the production of very large series).

There are different options for organizing the production process: using our own production, connecting various contract manufacturers or working with a single technology partner. We will look at the advantages and disadvantages of these approaches in the next article.

Questions and comments are welcome.