IPC Study of Quality Benchmarks for the Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) Industry for 2014 is now available from IPC — Association Connecting Electronics Industries. The annual study provides data to electronics assembly companies interested in comparing their key 2013 quality metrics to those of other assembly companies by company size, region and type of product.
The survey-based study addresses five major groups of manufacturing and service measurements: production, quality control, customer satisfaction, supplier performance and certification data. The survey sample includes 75 EMS companies from the Americas, Europe and Asia with annual sales ranging from under $10m to more than $500m.
Respondents reported on their use of various electronics assembly test and inspection methods, including in-circuit testing (ICT), manufacturing defects analyser (MDA), flying probe, boundary scan, automated optical inspection (AOI), X-ray inspection and final functional tests. They also reported their average test and inspection results, such as first-pass yield, defect rate in defects per million opportunities (DPMO) and yield at final inspection. Internal yields were reported for key processes, including surface mounting, wave soldering and selective soldering. Data on average cost of poor quality (COPQ) was reported for rework and scrap.
The study also reports industry production data, including number of printed board assemblies and number of surface-mount and plated-through hole components placed, as well as types of certifications received. Customer satisfaction metrics such as returns and on-time delivery are also provided, in addition to supplier performance metrics for PCB and component on-time deliveries and lot rejection rate.
The data, including averages, medians and percentiles, are segmented by company size tier, by region, and by type of production including rigid and flexible PCBs, mechanical assembly, complete end-product, cable and harness, and discrete wiring terminals and connectors.
The report is free to companies that participated in the survey. It is available for sale to IPC members for $675 and to nonmembers for $1,350.
