Jack

You can look at this queston from two perspectives: process control and performance.  Before production is moved to a new supplier, they should be audited to ensure that their level of process control matches or exceeds the level of process control at the previous supplier.  Performance is evaluaed through testing.  The amount of evaluation depends on the industry and application of the product.  The effort put into qualifying a PCB for a Class 1 product will be much less than for a Class 3 product.

My current role is Supplier Quality in the aerospace industry.  I don't get to deal directly with electronics too much, but here's a real example that is one of my current projects:  One of my suppliers is moving production of a family of coils from Plant A to Plant B.  They build to our work instructions and our bill of material on our tooling.  We still have to audit their manufacuring process at the sending and receiving locations and are performing thermal cycle testing to evaluate short term reliability.

On the PCB front, my company performs periodic supplier audits that include review of quality trends, evaluation of process control records, and audit the manufactring process to the supplier's work instructions as indicated by problems they have passed on to us.  

Don Vischulis

-----Original Message-----
>From: Jack Olson <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: Feb 22, 2008 9:00 AM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: [TN] FAB Vendor Verification? Validation?
>
>FAB: Vendor Verification? Validation?
>
>It seems like I have leaned on Technet too often lately,
>and I hope I'm not wearing out my welcome....
>
>...but I am having to address this question:
>"If you switch bare board manufacturers, what should you
>do to verify that the new boards are just as good or better
>than the old ones were?"
>
>I can say a lot about how to CHOOSE a bare board vendor
>and how to SPECIFY minimum levels of acceptability, but
>from a technical point of view, is there more that should be
>done than typical visual inspection, dimensional checks and
>cross sections of the boards themselves?
>
>Do any of you periodically monitor your bare board vendor
>by asking for process control reports and stuff like that?
>
>Have any of you ever been asked to re-validate a product
>(reliability testing) on products just for changing the bare
>board vendor?
>
>Maybe I have just had a fortunate career by always getting
>good boards, but lately I've been stung a few times in this
>brave new world.
>
>have a good day,
>Jack
>
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Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives
Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815
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