We're about to build a hundred. What's going to go wrong?

Before the pilot run: a review of your BOM, assembly data, test procedure and programming steps, with a written punch list of what the contract manufacturer will trip over. AUD 4,500. Production test fixture designed and built as a follow-on.

Where you are

The prototypes work. A contract manufacturer has quoted. Someone has to hand them a package — BOM, assembly drawings, programming steps, a test procedure — and someone has to be there when the first batch comes back with a yield problem. If that someone is also the person who has to keep the rest of the business running, this is the package for it.

I’ve owned this handoff on the inside: what goes to the factory, what comes back, and the pilot-run problems in between. Most of them are visible in the package before a single board is built.

The review — AUD 4,500

I go through your manufacturing package the way the factory’s engineer will, and then the way the first batch will:

• BOM: parts that are end-of-life, single-sourced, in the wrong package, or have a cheaper equivalent the CM will substitute without asking; approved alternates.
• Assembly data: footprints, polarity marks, fiducials, panelisation, stencil, the things that turn into “we couldn’t tell which way round”.
• Programming and provisioning: how firmware, serial numbers, keys and calibration get into each unit, and whether that survives a factory operator on a Friday afternoon.
• Test: what your test procedure actually proves, what it misses, and what a pass/fail fixture should check so faulty units don’t reach customers.
• Compliance and labelling: what has to be on the product and in the folder before it ships.

You get a written punch list ranked will stop the run / will cost yield / cosmetic, with the fix for each, and a fixture specification if you want one built.

The fixture — quoted from the review

A bench fixture with automated functional test: power-up and current checks, every interface exercised, analog channels calibrated, results logged, a green light or a red light. Built so a factory operator can use it and so you get a pass/fail record per serial number. Typical range AUD 8,000–25,000 depending on channels and connectors; the review gives you the fixed number.

What I need from you

The BOM (parts list), the files the factory builds from (Gerbers or ODB++, pick-and-place, assembly drawings), the schematic, the firmware and how it’s loaded today, the test procedure if one exists, the CM’s quote and questions, and two working units. If your engineer has gone and you don’t know which of these you have, send what you can find plus the CM’s emails; working out what actually exists is the first day of the review.

What’s not included

• The contract manufacturer’s own NPI charges, tooling and stencils.
• Redesign of the board. The punch list says what to change; a respin is a separate fixed quote.
• Ongoing production support beyond the pilot — that’s a retainer, which is the natural next step.