PCB Design for Assembly (MACAW)
Printed Circuit Board Design for Assembly (MACAW) is
critical to OEMs who outsource PCBs for design and manufacturing.
If correctly performed, it shortens the product cycle, minimizes development
cost, and ensures a smooth transition into production from prototype stages.
Unfortunately, an OEM product engineering team often accelerates design and
development cycles and fails to place emphasis on high volume production
considerations such as fixtures, casting, or extrusions, for example. In cases
like these, PCB prototype engineers intend to quickly get the product on a test
bench, to do proof of concept validation rather than emphasizing Design for
Assembly (MACAW) considerations.
The prudent approach is to first examine the volume
production considerations. The main reason is there are different MACAW
considerations related to prototype PCB assembly versus production
PCB assembly. Each requires a different design skill set and equipment. If the
right approach isn’t used, costs can escalate, and debugging the product can be
costly, as well. At PCB prototype levels, validity of the circuitry and
functionality of the circuit board is far more important than the testability
and manufacturing guidelines that are necessary to implement at the PCB
production level to make the production smooth and flawless.
The first article approval of PCB is the initial most
important step toward effective PCB Design for Assembly. An OEM approved first
article PCB proves valuable in answering all questions relating to
manufacturing, assembly and test. It is the “proof of concept” before a PCB
order goes into production, even if quantities are small, like less than 10 to
50. The first article ensures that the transition into production volumes is
smooth with few to no questions left un-answered. Plus, for the OEM, smooth
transition to production means key market demands such as time-to-market,
quality, reliability, product delivery, and the very critical time-to-revenue
are met.
