Greetings to all:
               My, it seems that many folks out there are involved in
          adversarial customer/supplier relationships!  We need to
          look at our business relationships as partnerships where we
          are in win/win situations.
               I can tell you that HADCO electrically tests 100% of
          the boards we produce before they go to our customers.  We
          are also a "profit" organization that is in business to make
          an honest day's pay.  Although we are deeply entrenched in
          all  of the quality programs that should yield a perfectly
          functional product (i.e., TQM, ISO-9002, SPC, CQIT, etc.),
          electrical test has been and probably always will be a
          safety net which is used to ensure that our customers get a
          board that is functionally sound.  Our customers will be
          charged for this test either as an "NRE" or amortized in the
          unit price of the circuit board.  It takes time and money to
          generate the electrical test fixture, and more time and
          money to move the boards into electrical test, as well as
          for dwell time on the e.t. equipment which, yes, is very
          sophisticated and expensive nowadays.  Before we entertain
          doing business with someone, this is discussed upfront.  Our
          customers and my company need to know just what is to be
          expected.  We have and always will stand behind our product
          100% of the time.  This means that we will take full
          responsibility for the bare board (is it a PCB or PWB?) that
          we produce.  There are gray areas out there, intermittent
          opens, for example, that sometimes escape electrical test
          callout.  We will still stand behind our product (the bare
          board) if we have caused the defect.  Any required warranty
          above and beyond the cost of the bare circuit board would
          have to be discussed and agreed upon upfront.  If the risk
          outweighs the benefits of doing business, we would have to
          walk away from doing that kind of work, plain and simple.
               If you are dealing with a quality board shop,
          catastrophic situations will not develop.  If receiving and
          populating boards that turn out to be defective is a way of
          life for your company, it's time to look for another board
          fabricator.
          Regards,
          Tom Coyle
          Field Services Engineer
          HADCO Corporation

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