An electronics manufacturer building one million circuit boards at 3 sigma levels would build 66,807 defective circuit boards. Assuming each defective board required $100 worth of parts and labor to repair, it would cost $6,680,700 to complete the repairs.
SOMEONE ONCE ASKED ME why 6 sigma is important in electronics. Why is there such a push for continuous process improvement at the design and manufacturing levels? From a practical sense, the real question should be: Can a company afford not to implement processes that will ensure 6 sigma quality?
SEE ALSO
Best practices for EMS manufacturing RFQ quotes
EMS Manufacturer internal cost vs OEM quoted fees vs OEM target price
How to drive cost out of your manufacturing product portfolio
Dense ball grid array (BGA) packages in electronics packaging routinely contain over 1,000 solder bumps. At minimum, there will be over 2,000 interconnections within the package that contain solder bumps and wire bonds between the package and die.
It is not beyond imagination that a printed circuit board could have over 100,000 interconnections – solder bumps and wire bonds – within the completed printed circuit board assembly.
For argument’s sake, let’s assume 10 printed circuit boards are manufactured, each with 100,000 interconnections.
For that lot of 10 printed circuit boards, there are 1,000,000 interconnections; 1,000,000 opportunities for failure within that lot.
In this simplified analogy, in a 6 sigma environment, four of the 1,000,000 interconnections could fail, as shown in Table 1.
However, if the four interconnections are on individual printed circuit boards, it is possible 40% (4 of 10 circuit boards) would fail. This would be unacceptable in commercial markets, let alone high reliability markets such as medical, industrial, and military / defense electronics.
Table 1
Quality levels
Ideally, customers, regardless of electronics end-market, would want their circuit boards to approach 6 sigma levels – four card failures per 1,000,000 boards. Which means the design, manufacturing, and supply chain functions must focus their quality to levels approaching 7 sigma – two defects per 100,000,000. (See: Improving SMT PCBA line productivity)
From an economic standpoint, improving quality to a 6 sigma level makes practical sense.
Get list of EMS manufacturers for your requirements (Its free)
Save time and money. Find quality EMS manufacturers. Fast. Venture Outsource has a massive, global database of contract electronic design and manufacturing capabilities. Speak with a Provider Advisor.
“Was able to very quickly find details on the important elements of setting up EMS and ODM partnerships, talked with an advisor for personalized info on quality providers matching our requirements while getting up to speed quickly about the industry and connect with key staff from like-minded companies and potential partners. Great resource.”
— Jeff Treuhaft, Sr. Vice President, Fusion-IO
Advisors tell you matches we find for your needs, answer your questions and, can share EMS industry knowledge specific to your industries and markets.
