Electronic Design - Case Study

This report is an example of how M Squared Electronics quality driven design and manufacturing services won a contract for printed circuit board assemblies previously produced in China.

Our customer’s product is a medical X-ray film processor that is sold both domestically and internationally. The machine controller assemblies were originally designed and produced by a vendor in China. These were experiencing high failure rates in the field. This was due to poor quality control during assembly and the specification of sub-standard components. The customer found it difficult to obtain service and product support because of the communication difficulties and distance between his plant and China. Although the production cost of the controller was low, the true cost of ownership was greatly increased due to the difficulty and costs involved in servicing equipment failures. The cost to the reputation of the customer’s company was incalculable. There was a need to source the controller locally.

We were awarded this contract because our price was competitive along with our high quality level, on time delivery, and minimal shipping costs. Additionally, by keeping the electronic design local, continuing engineering was simplified by our ability to easily visit the customer’s facility.

After failure analysis of the original controller, we redesigned the assembly to be form, fit, and function compatible with the existing controller. The design was done with: quality, reliability, manufacturability, reparability, and ease of firmware upgrades in mind. As a result, our customer anticipates a significant reduction in the cost of ownership by using the new M Squared Electronics design.