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Before you identify the best PCB manufacturing and PCB assembly company for your ongoing PCB sourcing needs you must compare the quotes. Often customers do not know how to make meaningful price comparisons. We tend to think that comparing costs means focusing only on the final price tag. If that is your approach too then you need to revisit your approach. Here are a few quick tips on how to compare your China PCB manufacturer quotes.
To ensure that you are comparing an apple to apple, it is important to send out uniform requirements to your suppliers. Create a detailed requirements document and ensure that all the PCB manufacturers get the same specifications document. This will make your price comparisons more meaningful.
There is one more important step before you start sending out your quote requests to your China PCB manufacturers. There are so many PCB manufacturing companies out there in the industry but not all of them will make a great match for your requirements. You should not send out your quote requests to every supplier that you come across. You need to identify first the most suitable suppliers and select top three to five manufacturers before you send your requirements for quote. This will give you access to only the top-rated manufacturers and assure you good quality PCBs. When you skip this step, then you will be selecting your PCB manufacturer merely based on the cost and that may not be the best way to go about sourcing your PCBs.
The next step is to send your requirements to the shortlisted suppliers. Once you get the quotes, pay attention to all the details. Understand what exactly you get for the price you pay. Do not skip any details. Check the fine print. If you have any questions, you must first have your questions answered before making your final decision. Find out what is the turnaround time required by each company and how it will impact your production cycle. When you are finalizing your quote, you need to take into consideration all these factors.
Do not forget to check whether there are any hidden costs. Do not presume things here, it is best to ask this question to all the suppliers. This will force them to share with you if there are any hidden costs. Does the quote include the shipping costs, the assembly components cost and other incidental costs? Without ensuring all these details you must not finalize your quotes.
As you could see, all these will take a considerable amount of time and that is why it is not recommended to source your PCBs in the last minute. Whenever you approach the market in the last minute, you will be putting yourself in a very disadvantageous position. Moreover, you will also be under a great pressure as you may need to get the PCBs delivered in a timely fashion for your production unit to start the production process as planned. Start early and make well-informed choices.
ChinaPCBOne Technology LTD. is the author of this article on pcb assembly. Find more information, about China PCB.
