Electronics Manufacturing Supply Chain Management Via Information Modeling

Electronics manufacturing companies are concentrating more on their core competencies and seek partnerships with vendors such as printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturers for key inputs. Consequently, vendors must be selected based on strategic criteria rather than traditional cost considerations. This increased importance of collaboration with suppliers requires more formal and sophisticated approaches to vendor selection. A manufacturing process capability model is proposed to allow designers to assess the compatibility of the vendor’s manufacturing capabilities to fabricate a PCB. A multi-attribute decision model is invoked to weigh the importance of the selection criteria and to rank the vendors according to their suitability for manufacturing the product. The system enables this decision process to occur early in the design process so that multienterprise design for manufacturing may occur. The result is that electronics manufacturers can become more agile by selecting PCB manufacturers depending on the particular requirements for each new product. The consequent exchange of manufacturing information has the potential to greatly speed up the product realization process.