Liability....Ownership of liability for board defects before and 
after assembly???

Whow....What a subject!  The following answer should ruffle a lot of 
feathers and spur another response or two.  I don't manufacture 
boards and I don't use boards but I have considerable experience 
(over 30 years) in both areas.  The responses I read to this subject 
compelled me to answer.

Some of the responses:

1.-  The vendor is responsible for all costs of a discrepant assembly 
based on defective PWB.
2.-  It's a matter for all vendors to take ownership of quality 
defects at the point they are identified.
3.-  The vendor shall be responsible regardless of when the defect 
shows up.
4.-  If the defects are found after receipt and before assembly, the 
vendor is responsible for your 
      quality and receiving time to qualify it.
5.-  If the board gets assembled, soldered and tested and shows a 
failure, the vendor is responsible 
      components and all labor costs.
6.-  To do business with you the vendor must abide by your terms.
7.-  You have a battery of lawyers just waiting to hunt your vendor 
down, kill your first born and 
       make their life a living hell.
8.-  Much emphasis was placed on electrical testing.

QUESTION.....WHAT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY?.....LOOKS LIKE NONE!.... 
GOOD POSITION IF YOU CAN FIND ENOUGH SUCKERS TO BUY INTO THIS.

REAL LIFE RESPONSIBILITY (tested many times in court)

LAMINATE SUPPLIER:  It is the responsibility of the laminate supplier 
to inspect and test all materials going into the laminate prior to 
lamination.  If the laminate fails due to the resin, the resin 
supplier is responsible to replace the resin, not the copper, glass 
fabric and labor of making the material. PERIOD, END OF LIABILITY!

BARE BOARD VENDOR:  It is the responsibility of your vendor to 
inspect and test all materials and chemicals prior to manufacture.  
If the chemicals or laminate fails after manufacture, the supplier is 
only responsible to replace the defect material and not the cost of 
manufacturing the board.  PERIOD, END OF LIABILITY!

USER RESPONSIBILITY:  It is your responsibility to inspect and test 
the bare-board prior to assembly and soldering.  If the board fails 
during inspection or test your vendor is responsible to replace the 
board. PERIOD, END OF LIABILITY!

If it fails after assembly and soldering your vendor may, or may not, 
be responsible to replace the board, depending on the torture you put 
the board through (wave solder, reflow, double reflow, hand iron or a 
combination all).  Did you specify a material that was capable of 
your specific torture?  Did you run temperature profiles for a 
specific design and keep within the limitations of the specified 
material?  This can all be very subjective, relative to liability.  
Or do you simply require your your vendor to eat all liabilities 
regardless of where the fault lies?  LIABILITY HERE MUST BE 
NEGOTIATED!

ELECTRICAL TEST:  Electrical test is not for reliability or quality 
levels of the board.  This test simply and solely assures continuity. 
 It does not tell you whether you have hair line fractures in the 
copper foil or if there are barrel cracks which may ultimately fail 
at a later date.  This test may very possibly pass boards that would 
show intermittent failures.  In other words it may pass electrical 
test at your vendors and fail after soldering.

MANUFACTURE:  Today, the quality of the bare-board is generally very 
good.  Your vendor has installed SPC and constantly monitors all 
processes through chemical analysis, in process inspection, testing, 
etc..  However, there are over 100 process steps to make a multilayer 
board.  Any single one of these process steps can go out of whack 
which can cause a failure.  

DOCK TO STOCK:  Most users today do very little in the way of 
incoming inspection, with user cross sectioning processes becoming a 
thing of the past.  They are leaving all quality and incoming 
inspection responsibilities in the vendors hands.  This is to reduce 
your operating costs.  It very much like going to Las Vegas.  However,
 if your choose to go to Las Vegas, bring your own money.  You have 
selected this route and the consequences.

FACTS OF LIFE:  Though I do not manufacture boards, let's for the 
moment assume that I am your vendor.  Let's assume that you are going 
to give me $100,000 a year in business.  Let's further assume that I 
have a 10 percent profitable business.  Let's assume that you give me 
a $5,000 order and the components with labor amounts to $15,000.  I 
would be already at a loss if the order failed.  If you think I would 
accept your buy back contract, you must think I am stupid!

Now let's assume that you are going to give me $1,000,000 a year in 
business.  Now I may consider signing your buy back contract.  
However, we are going to have many disagreements of who is at fault 
when a failure arrives.  If I am at fault, and the buy back doesn't 
amount to very much, I will honor the buy back.  If the loss amounts 
to significant dollars, I want out of the contract and be happy to 
lose you as a customer.  Let's say that we don't have a contract and 
the loss is significant, let's go to court.  You loose, I win!

Many years ago when I did in fact manufacture boards, a customer 
asked me to quote a board that would include a buy back.  I first 
asked how many dollars were involved, in addition to the price of the 
board.  It amounted to $107.00.  The board was $10.00.  Guess what?  
I quoted the board at $117.00.

Basically, the industry standard is,... you use it, you own it.  The 
only thing your vendors is legally responsible for is the price of 
the board!!!!!

Well I have put in my two cents worth, hoping the buy back isn't too 
high.  I can't help but wonder if there are any vendors out there 
that have nerve to comment on this without the fear of loosing a 
customer that they have signed a buy back agreement with.


Regards,

Norm Einarson
Printed Circuit Technology