FAQ

Quotation comparison is difficult because two figures that look comparable rarely are. One quotation may exclude tooling, another may assume a different surface finish, and a third may be based on a quantity break that will not apply to the real order. The way to judge whether a price is reasonable is to break it into its parts and compare like with like.

What a PCBA quotation is made of

• Component cost against the BOM, including sourcing channel and any approved equivalents.
• Bare board fabrication: layer count, material, copper weight, surface finish and quantity.
• Assembly: stencil and programming setup, SMT and DIP labour, and the number of placement positions.
• Test: fixture cost where one is needed, plus test time per board.
• Packaging, documentation and, where applicable, certification or compliance testing.

How to compare two quotations properly

Fix the BOM revision, the surface finish, the acceptance class and the test specification first. Then check whether each quotation covers tooling and stencil separately or amortises it, whether the component cost is based on the same manufacturer part numbers, and what the stated lead time and minimum order quantity actually are. A lower headline price that omits test coverage or uses a different finish is not cheaper once the omitted items are added back.

Where cost can legitimately come down

Real savings come from design and planning rather than from pressure on the hourly rate. Improving panel utilisation reduces the bare board cost. Replacing an obsolete or single-source part with a pin-to-pin alternative removes a premium. Standardising the surface finish across products reduces setup. Consolidating quantity into fewer builds lowers the per-board setup share. And letting the assembler buy the material turnkey removes the margin stacking of a multi-vendor supply chain.

What to ask for in a quotation

A quotation is only comparable if the scope behind it is stated. Ask for component, board, assembly and test shown as separate lines, for tooling and fixtures identified as included or not, for the surface finish confirmed, and for long-lead parts named with a realistic lead time rather than an optimistic one. A supplier who quotes from an open breakdown can answer those questions without re-pricing the order. More on the drivers is on the PCBA cost page.

Volume delivery depends on capacity that is actually installed, on a material plan that anticipates the parts with long lead times, and on a schedule that is monitored rather than assumed. A supplier who can answer with specific equipment numbers and a named capacity figure is in a better position to commit to a date than one who answers with an assurance.

The capacity behind a commitment

Kilandu operates high-speed SMT and automatic DIP lines in Baoan District, Shenzhen; the equipment list and the monthly placement capacity are published on the factory capabilities page. Because fabrication and assembly sit in the same supply chain, bare board capacity and assembly capacity can be planned together rather than booked separately, which removes one of the common causes of a slipped schedule.

What usually delays a volume order

In most projects the binding constraint is not machine time, it is component availability. A single long-lead microcontroller, a specific connector or a custom magnetic can add weeks on its own. That is why a realistic schedule is built backwards from the material plan: long-lead items are identified and ordered first, buffer stock is held where the part is single-sourced, and any part at risk of obsolescence is raised early with a proposed pin-to-pin alternative.

How progress is tracked

Once a work order is released, material arrival, bare board readiness, SMT, DIP and test are tracked as separate milestones rather than as a single percentage. Customers are informed of progress at agreed intervals, and if a risk appears the buyer hears about it while there is still time to act on it rather than at the delivery date. Where a programme runs over several months, capacity can be reserved in advance so that later releases are not queued behind other work.

What to fix before the schedule is agreed

A delivery date is only as firm as the assumptions under it. Before a volume order is placed, four things should be settled: which long-lead parts are bought on a buffer or last-time basis, when the bare boards are released, what test coverage the schedule has to allow for, and at which milestones you will be told if the plan has moved. Agreeing those four turns a promised date into a monitored one. Lead-time behaviour is covered under MOQ and lead time.

When a product problem appears in the field or on the line, what matters is how quickly and how thoroughly the manufacturer responds. Kilandu provides after-sales service and technical support with round-the-clock response, and treats each case as a traceable quality record rather than a one-off conversation.

What the response actually involves

• Fast initial acknowledgement and a named technical contact for the case.
• Production records pulled for the affected lot, including reflow profile and inspection data.
• Joint analysis of the board and the reported failure, with the customer in the loop.
• A corrective action agreed and applied, with containment for stock already produced.

Why this is possible

Every build carries lot-level traceability from component sourcing through placement, DIP, AOI and X-ray inspection to final test, so when a question is raised there is a production record to examine rather than a recollection to rely on. That record is also what makes a corrective action possible: the cause can be identified from evidence and closed out, and any remaining stock contained at the same time. How those records are produced is covered on the quality assurance page.

Whether a manufacturer is stable is a fair question before placing volume production, and it is usually answered by evidence rather than by assurances. The relevant evidence is the history of the business, its market position, the customers who keep placing repeat orders, and the depth of the technical team behind the factory.

What to look at

• Company history and the length of relationships with existing customers.
• Certifications actually held, with certificate numbers and validity periods.
• Production capacity and equipment installed, not only what is advertised.
• Engineering headcount, since it determines how much support a project receives.

Making the assessment

None of the four checks above is settled by a sales conversation. Company history is verifiable from public records, certificates carry numbers and validity dates that can be checked with the issuing body, capacity can be confirmed against a current order book, and engineering depth shows in how a technical question is answered. A supplier who can produce that evidence quickly is usually the same supplier who can produce it when a batch goes wrong. Company details are on the about page.

Component supply is the part of a PCBA programme that is least under the buyer's direct control, so the question is really about which channels a supplier buys through and what happens when the market tightens. A stable supply position is built from sourcing discipline, contractual relationships and planning ahead of the shortage rather than reacting to it.

Sourcing channels and traceability

Components are sourced from authorised and franchised distributors wherever the part is available through them, which keeps the material traceable and controls counterfeit risk. Every lot can be tied back to its supplier and date code, and incoming material is checked against the BOM and the approved vendor list before it is released to production. Where a part can only be obtained outside the authorised channel, that is raised with the customer rather than decided silently.

Long-term agreements and inventory

For parts that appear across several products, long-term agreements cover passives, connectors, microcontrollers and power devices so that pricing and allocation are known in advance. Where a part is single-sourced or has a history of allocation, buffer stock is held against forecast demand, and customers running repeat production can have material reserved for their programmes.

Long lead time and end of life

The two events that damage a schedule most are a long lead time appearing without warning and a part going end of life mid-programme. Both are manageable if they are seen early. Kilandu flags long-lead and single-source parts at quotation stage, tracks manufacturer lifecycle notices, and proposes pin-to-pin or functionally equivalent alternatives with a documented comparison so the customer can approve a substitution on evidence rather than on trust. Where a last-time buy is the right answer, the required quantity and storage plan are agreed before the part disappears.

How to test supply stability

The practical test is not how a supplier performs in a normal market but what they do when a part goes short. Ask which channels they buy through, whether buffer stock is held on single-sourced parts, how early a lead-time extension or lifecycle notice reaches you, and what form a proposed alternative takes. A comparison document you can approve is a different thing from a phone call saying the part has changed. Sourcing practice is described under electronic component sourcing.

Environmental and regulatory compliance is not a single certificate that is obtained once. RoHS and REACH are updated regularly, individual markets add their own restrictions, and a product that was compliant at launch can fall out of compliance when a component changes. The practical question for a buyer is what documentation the supplier can produce and whether the material decisions were made with those obligations in view.

RoHS and REACH

Kilandu builds with lead-free processes and RoHS and REACH compliant materials. That covers the flux chemistry and solder alloy used in production as well as the components and laminate specified for the board. Material declarations and RoHS and REACH statements are available on request, and for customers who need to report against a restricted substance list, the relevant documentation can be issued with the shipment.

Environmental management

The factory operates under an ISO 14001:2015 certified environmental management system, which covers how process waste, solder dross, cleaning agents and packaging are handled, and it works within Shenzhen's environmental, health and safety regulations. Packaging can be specified to reduce single-use plastics where the customer's own environmental commitments require it.

Other regimes worth planning for

Depending on where a product is sold, additional obligations may apply: WEEE take-back in the European Union, conflict minerals reporting under the relevant disclosure rules, California Proposition 65 warnings, and country-specific packaging and battery regulations. These sit with the brand owner rather than with the assembler, but they depend on information the assembler holds, so it is worth agreeing at the start what data has to be passed upstream and in what format.

What to ask for as evidence

Compliance is proved with documents, not with a certificate on a wall. For a specific build, the evidence you can request includes a RoHS and REACH statement, material declarations for the parts actually used, and confirmation of the processes and finishes applied. Where your own market adds obligations such as WEEE or packaging rules, agree at the start which of them the assembler has to supply data for. The environmental programme is set out on the corporate social responsibility page.

A customer's board design is the commercial asset the whole project rests on, and protecting it is a legitimate condition of doing business rather than a favour. The question to settle before releasing Gerber files is how those files are stored, who inside the factory can see them, and whether anything about the design will appear anywhere outside the project.

How confidentiality is handled

Kilandu works under confidentiality agreements and will sign a customer's own NDA where one is required. Design data, schematics, Gerber files and BOMs are held for the project only and are not disclosed to third parties, not reused for other customers and not reproduced in marketing or reference material. Project files are kept under access control, so the people who can open them are the engineers and production staff who need them to build the boards.

Where the risk usually sits

In practice a design leaks through the edges of a supply chain rather than from its centre. A subcontracted process step, a stencil or tooling supplier, a courier label, or an unstructured email attachment each create a copy that nobody is tracking. The way to control that is to keep the number of parties who see the whole design as small as possible and to put the handling rules in writing before the first file is sent.

Practical measures

• A signed agreement in place before design files are released.
• Named project owner inside the factory, with access limited to the staff who need it.
• Design files stored on controlled systems rather than circulated by personal email.
• Customer-owned tooling, stencils and fixtures identified and kept for that programme.
• No use of customer designs, images or part numbers in public material.

What the agreement has to cover

Most buyers already have a standard NDA, and using it is usually faster than negotiating a new one. What matters is that it covers the design data, the tooling and the production records, that it names who inside the factory may see the files, and that it says what happens to the material when the programme ends. A supplier who can work inside those terms without hesitation is telling you something about how the rest of the work will be handled. Confidentiality terms can be agreed before files are released — start with the contact page.