Hello Technetters, First, this response is from someone who works in a board shop so take it with a ....... I believe there are already multiple avenues for a customer to find the proper board shop. Starting with the ISO approved shops and going to the IPC members list. The problem I have with another group auditing the PCB shop is that each is gear to build completely different products. Tyco (my shop), for example has seven different shops (as of this letter) and when customers try to use one audit for all of them they become very frustrated. The volume shop is geared to low cost manufacturing, the tech shop is gear to new products, etc.... My point finally is who as a third party would be qualified to audit us? If you want to know the "true capabilities" of a shop you can use the CAT test to evaluate their technology. I just see another level of cost being introduced that cannot possibly take all the needs of the customer and publish the "rating" of a PCB shop. Just my opinion, Joe Dickson Dir. of Engineering Tyco Intl. PCB Santa Clara /Stockton Divisions ############################################################## TechNet Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8c ############################################################## To subscribe/unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the body: To subscribe: SUBSCRIBE TECHNET <your full name> To unsubscribe: SIGNOFF TECHNET ############################################################## Please visit IPC web site (http://www.ipc.org/html/forum.htm) for additional information. If you need assistance - contact Gayatri Sardeshpande at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5365 ##############################################################