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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