Embarking on a new outsourced custom electronics project can be full of concerns – and certainly items that you’ll want to have addressed by your outsourcing partner up front. Whether you are an original equipment manufacturer in need of a small batch of custom electronic assemblies for your own product, or a contract manufacturer and want to leverage the volume requirements of an outsourcing partner in order to pass the savings on to your customers, an outsourced relationship is potentially very valuable. As you get started, you’ll want to keep the following seven considerations in mind.

When trying to decide what I was going to blog about this week, I decided to move away from the marketing themed blogs. As I've said before, I love all things tech and marketing related. However, this past week was very enlightening for me both personally and professionally. I volunteer with an organization called Net Impact, which is: “a global association formed to mobilize a new generation to use their careers to drive transformational change in their workplaces and the world.” The mission of Net Impact Boston is to connect like-minded professionals who aim to use business as a force for environmental & social impact by providing events, dialogue, and resources for companies and individuals.

Recently, my wife and I joined 14 others from our church on a mission trip to Guatemala. While there were many uplifting spiritual rewards for both the givers and receivers of this grace, in this post I’d like to share several key business lessons that emerged as well.

Last month, RBB employees Steve Baker and Tim Crossland joined technicians, engineers, and quality technicians at the IPC Training center located at AP Solutions in Cleveland to learn from Master IPC Trainer, Benny Mostella Jr. The sole goal of the two-day workshop they attended was to train and qualify attendees to become Certified IPC Trainers (CIT).

I’ll be the first to admit, that growing up I had zero interest in the electronics manufacturing industry. In my defense, my father became President of RBB in the early 2000s, which was also smack dab in the center of my high school years. Most likely the only types of electronics I was interested in back then were my curling iron and cell phone. But alas, many years have passed since those days and with a couple of business and marketing degrees under my belt... combined with an appreciation for unique businesses that do big things, here I am blogging for RBB.

If you don’t continue to buy from us, bad things will happen. That’s what your current electronic assembly provider hopes you are thinking.

Whether you are looking to buy or sell custom electronics, it is important to have a clear understanding of attributes to the cost of a printed circuit board assembly (PCBA). Some of the biggest cost drivers include, but are not limited to, the following:

Maybe you remember the Telephone Game from childhood –one person whispers a story or phrase to the next person and tells them to pass it on. They turn and whisper as much of it as possible (as much as they remember!) to the next person, and so on down the line. When the last person has heard the message, they repeat it out loud. Everyone gets a good laugh when the original message is then stated, and all the players realize how distorted it got as it was passed down the line. It’s great fun as a party game; not so great if it’s your training methodology.