A Sofeast customer recently discovered that changing manufacturers is rarely as simple as moving your tooling from one factory to another, when delays from their existing factory started affecting deliveries to their online store. They already owned their mold and had tooling in place, but there was another major obstacle to switching manufacturers: They didn’t have the PCBA Gerber files from their supplier.
Those files had been developed by the previous supplier, who now could not provide the related software information.
What initially looked like a manufacturing transfer was therefore becoming a much larger R&D project.
The situation: delays force the customer to consider moving
The customer already had tooling made and owned the mold.
Their previous factory provided assembly services, but it had been experiencing frequent delays and increasingly long lead times. These problems were affecting deliveries to the customer’s online store.
Changing suppliers therefore became an option.
Owning the mold should have made that easier, but during the process another issue became clear: the customer did not have all of the information associated with the electronic parts of their product.
The bigger problem: missing Gerber files from the supplier
The customer did not have their PCBA Gerber files because these had originally been developed by the former supplier.
When asked, that supplier said they no longer had the related software information.
This meant the customer owned the physical tooling but did not have all of the manufacturing design files and information associated with the existing product.
As a result, moving production could not simply consist of transferring the mold to another factory, and it looked like significant R&D work would also be required.
The missing product files created an additional dependency on the original supplier, effectively “locking-in” the customer.
The difficulty of leaving had therefore become much greater than simply finding another manufacturer, because they also had to deal with the missing PCBA Gerber files and software information as well.
Switching electronics manufacturers becomes an R&D project
This is where the commercial decision becomes more complicated. We assessed that the situation would require a significant amount of R&D work.
The customer needed to consider whether the cost of recreating or improving the missing engineering information was worthwhile compared with remaining with the existing supplier.
When switching electronics manufacturers, the cost of the move may not be limited to moving tooling and setting up production. If critical product information is unavailable, additional engineering work may need to become part of the transfer project.
What can you learn from this situation?
The obvious lesson is to understand what information you actually control before you need to change factories.
If your supplier has developed parts of your product, ask:
- Do we have the latest PCBA Gerber files from the supplier?
- What other product or software information does the supplier control?
- Do we have copies of the relevant manufacturing design files?
- What would we actually be able to transfer if we changed manufacturers?
- Would a new supplier need to carry out additional R&D work before taking over?
These questions become particularly important when supplier performance is already declining.
Finding out that important product files are missing only after delays have started affecting your customers leaves you with fewer easy options.
How Sofeast can help
If you are considering changing suppliers, the first step is to understand exactly what can be transferred and what engineering work may still be required.
Sofeast’s Product Engineering Services can support mechanical, electrical/electronic, firmware, DFM, and NPI work when a product needs additional engineering before production can move forward.
Where the existing supplier also needs to be managed during the transition, Supplier Management Solutions can provide local supplier communication, project management, and follow-up.
And if changing manufacturers requires finding an alternative production partner, Sofeast also provides New Factory Identification.
Final thought about Gerber files
Owning your tooling matters, but it is only part of what you may need to transfer a product successfully.
If you do not have the Gerber files from your supplier, associated software information, or other important manufacturing design files, changing factories may turn into a substantial R&D exercise.
Before supplier problems force your hand, make sure you know exactly which product files you possess and which remain under the control of your manufacturer. Otherwise, supplier lock-in may only become apparent when you are already trying to leave.