It’s Friday afternoon and after three months of long days, your masterpiece is finally complete. Today is the deadline for releasing your design, so that the contract manufacturer can start your build next week. Prototypes need to be ready in two weeks for that all-important trade show, where your brilliant, shiny new creation will be the center of attention.
Going from the design to the physical PCB assembly is what we call electronics design realization. For many people, it’s a process fraught with difficulties and can be very stressful.
BOM or Timebomb?
The bill of materials (BOM) is the linchpin of your design. It connects the design, manufacturing, and supply-chain domains. Considered by many as simply another output from the design process that’s kicked over the fence, the BOM contains enough information to reflect what’s in the design, but also often ambiguities, or worse, errors, when it comes to purchasing the parts you actually need. Missing part numbers, partial part numbers, or incorrect part numbers can result in countless emails and phone calls with your contract manufacturer before you can even attempt to order all of the parts you need.
Part Availability (or lack thereof)
You’ve used a superlative power-management IC in your design that meets all your technical requirements. The problem is, now that you’re trying to source it, you find that the case variant you selected doesn’t quite have the availability that was indicated by your favorite distributor a few weeks ago. In fact, finding some for your sample build is like finding a needle in a haystack.
Incorrect Parts
Now imagine you finally resolve your BOM issues, your PCBs are back from fabrication, and your contract manufacturer is about to start assembly. You arrange to have an overnight courier send the two prototype assembled PCBs back to you so you can work on the board bringup in preparation for the show. Phew, things are coming together. Or maybe not...