Portability is key to competitiveness for PCB manufacturers

The ability to move the manufacturing of a product from one physical location to another efficiently is critical for any PCB assembly company (figure 1). Whether your company has in-house manufacturing with several factories available or is a company that uses different equipment manufacturers to make your products, most likely one of your greatest challenges is switching product lines from one factory to another. The reasons for switching may be to reduce manufacturing costs, manufacture larger quantities, or move to a higher quality manufacturer. The challenge is the same, regardless of the reason for moving product to a new factory — how to remain efficient. You want the switch-over process to take as little time as possible, avoiding the added costs of increased time-to-market. You also want all the data to be transferred accurately, without any translation issues. Lastly, you want all the libraries to be available, without requiring any additional adjustments and adding redundant, time-consuming work.