This is an interesting note Jason ; for all the wrong reasons (kidding)
;
just when you say "manufacture boards pretty well" ; it makes a logical
paradox with "letting defects escape" .
Something peculiar must have made you write this one .
The way I see it the lateral ties between testing ; process ; flow ;
componentry ; repair ; report ; feedback ; timelines ;R&D ; etc.
operate nowadays (with product changeover sometimes 6, even 3 months
(OEM's) with such an intensity ;
that unless you have A very good reasons to change this nucleus you
don't, as a general standard .

Working on few continents ; in PC industry especially (as you know
better than me) : yes you import boards for final assembly with plastics
; but the boards have to be burned in ; accepting untested boards I'd
see disadvantageous to all parties involved .

So far it's happening more other way = companies contract anything else
, but the final assembly (being their life line) .
Mind you ; most likely scenario on the busted boards is they've been
tested ; but on things like motherboards it takes little :
flex, partial  ESD; dry joints; Werner even mentioned effects of
excessive testing (overcycled) .
The odds against a complex card are pretty stiff ; that's why even
conformal coating is called on for mechanical aid quite often .

Would you trust somebody else with your final assy ?
That poor ol' printer bearing IBM logo shivered on my home desk .
But still ; seen a lot of things shipped from Asia being stamped with
"Made in Wherever else" .
With resident inspector or similar arrangements you can do wonders in
the most unlikely places , with favorable COG's .
This is an horses for courses question, hard to say :

What prompted you to this line of thought Jason ;
card subies driving you up the wall ?

Paul Klasek
http://www.resmed.com

> ----------
> From:         <Jason M. Smith>[SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent:         Saturday, 26 September 1998 1:07
> To:   [log in to unmask]
> Subject:      [TN] test and packaging
>
> Is there a big market in the electronics industry for a company just
> to do final
> packaging of electronic assembly?  I have the feel that a lot of big
> companies
> manufacture boards pretty well, but test and letting defects escape
> out to their
> customers seem to be a problem.  Do you guys think that companies
> would go for
> contracting out the manual final assembly to a shop that would just do
> the
> assembly for them?  Is this a big problem in industry?
>
> Jason Smith
> Process Materials Engineer
> Lexmark Electronics
>
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