Tales from the World of Component Engineering
You just finished evaluating the prototype PCBA—it passed all lab tests, met all design goals, and the production bare boards are on the way. You’re looking forward to your next project and helping your marketing team with some new product pages on the web site. First you check your emails and what is this? A message from the Purchasing Department stating that a specified component in your PCBA’s Bill of Materials is being discontinued.
Component manufacturers are sending out Product Discontinuation Notices (PDNs) more frequently than ever before, and if you are like most small OEMs, you deal with them only on a reactive basis. What’s behind the compression of component lifecycles?
- Increased Use of Contract Foundries. Many component manufacturers are going “fab-less”—they design the part, but outsource the actual fabrication. This means that the manufacturer has less control over its product line due to the loss of cost and schedule flexibility involved in contracting. This often results in truncated product lifecycles when unit sales are insufficient to justify a product run by contract fabricators, herein referred to as “fabs”.
- Relentless movement toward smaller Lithographies. Component manufacturers and the fabs are under pressure to increase densities and decrease package sizes. A key component in your new PCBA might be destined for “optimization,” which may result in the need to redesign your PCBA.
- Materials are Changing. Especially those used in passive components. A classic example is the polycarbonate dielectric film used in many older capacitors. This film has not been produced in many years and the large stocks of material are almost depleted. New dielectric films exist but each has characteristics which may or may not meet your original requirements.
- Compressed Product Lifecycles. Component volumes dictate lifecycle, so if requirements dramatically decrease, that part will be next to be discontinued.
What can you do to reduce the likelihood of receiving a showstopper PDN?
Signing up to receive component change notices and alerts from manufacturer websites can be a great help in keeping you informed. Many distributors offer to send out notices and can tie them to your purchase history—so be sure to take advantage of these services. I also like to keep in touch with local sales representatives as they can be a great resource for component life cycle info.
And finally, if you’re working with a full-service Electronics Manufacturing Services provider like REDCOM EMS, their component engineering team can be a big help during the bill of materials review phase of the project by flagging high-risk items and finding cross-over parts from other sources, which can result in faster delivery times.
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