We do not outsource assembly of our product, but we have discussed it. So, until other fine folk at SMTnet respond, we thought we�d rattle on for a while and maybe inspire some other chatter on the topic.
As we understand it, you: * Currently contract your board assembly. * Assemble, test, and verify performance of the product. * Plan to contract all board assembly and product assembly, test, and performance verification. * Would like to understand the risk in not performing any testing on our boards and only visually inspecting them.
The plan to visual inspect ONLY sounds risky enough to us that we suggest an interim program of verification. * We assume you�re comfortable with your supplier�s capabilities in the area where the responsibilities are changing. * We assume the contract requires your supplier to perform DVT testing, ESD, emissions, and whatnot prior to shipment to your plant. * We�d suggest that you sample shipments from your supplier for verification, in addition to the visual inspection that you mentioned. We�d expect that you�d reduce the sample size as your supplier�s performance continues to meet expectations.
reply »