When doing business in China, unlike in the U.S., you may never know what you are getting. This statement comes from over 10 years of experience dealing with the Asian suppliers. The key to dealing with Asian suppliers is to have complete control over your supply chain;  if you don’t, you have now idea what you are getting.

Understanding this principle stems from the knowledge that the Asian businessmen will say YES to almost every request.  It is not in their gene pool to say no. “Yes- we can do it” is said more in the Asian culture than “what’s on TV” in American.  The challenge for American Printed Circuit Board buyers is where and from who is your product coming from. The Asians are excellent logistics and networking specialists. They either have a family member or a friend in the business of something and YOUR product may go to anyone of them.

Case In Point: Years ago, when entering the Chinese manufacturing market, we had a trusted relationship (or what we thought was a trusted relationship) who was a PCB supplier actually give us documentation for supplier A.  They stated they were the factory and were owners and part of the relationship. It soon came to our knowledge they had fudged the UL logo from another factory along with all the paperwork. It turned out that they claimed the PCBs were built in one factory but in fact were built in another factory with the original factory’s UL logo on the PCB and paperwork were doctored. Needless to say we terminated that relationship. It was a brutal awakening to the methodology of how the Chinese go business. There are thousands of middlemen in China shipping out your product to any type of supplier that can meet the price and delivery. You will not know until it is too late if you are really dealing direct!

It is key that if you are sourcing anything from Asia that you have control over you supply chain. PCB Solutions visits China up to, and sometimes more than 4 times per year. We review IPC1710 documents. We conduct quality audits on the factories. We meet the president of the suppliers and insist on following our product through the process flow- forced Honesty and Integrity if you will. We negotiate payment terms (typically unheard of in working with Asian suppliers).  We meet the staff and set our expectations…

So the next time you get the itch to get rid of that U.S. based middle man and play roulette with suppliers emailing you daily, think about what happens when a significant quality issue arises or if you have paid 50-100% of the cost of the product upfront and you have no leverage for a return. Did you consider the cost of wire transfer fees into your costs? How about exchange rates, shipping costs, supply chain control, customs, duties, communication, English skills of the supplier, engineering support, quality of the factory, etc…on and on.

Let our 9 + years of experience work for you. We can, source, stock, label, inventory and even provide secondary inspection on your product if necessary. We lend ourselves to being experts in sourcing Asian based products…don’t get caught trying to learn to be one and spending your quality time fixing problems. Trust the middleman!

Please visit our home page at: www.pcb-solutions.com We are a supplier of Domestic and off-shore Rigid, Rigid-Flex and Flex Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs), Domestic Military PCBs, Domestic Tier I PCBA, Domestic Sheet Metal, Domestic Injection Molding and other Custom Fabricated Services.

http://www.pcb-solutions.com/pcb.html

http://www.pcb-solutions.com/flex.html

PCB Solutions continues to see solid sales from internal house accounts and modest growth from Reps and Web leads.  PCB Solutions remains very optimistic about its growth on the web as it has rise to  the 20th position for the key search term “printed circuit board;” which is one of the most competitive key search words in the industry. Web marketing efforts by www.infogenix.com are proving great results by branding the www.pcb-solutions.com domain on line.

Last month also highlights the beginning of PCB Solutions on twitter. You can track us at http://twitter.com/PCB_Solutions We began tweeting about our business, the industry and our market place. Follow us on twitter (see our home page as well to follow).

Look for us this month to be on Facebook. Who would have ever thought social media would be an outlet for gaining web traffic in the Printed Circuit Board industry.  We are also working to gain access with wikipedia and look forward to that announcement in the near future…

Please visit our home page at: www.pcb-solutions.com We are a supplier of Domestic and off-shore Rigid, Rigid-Flex and Flex Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs), Domestic Military PCBs, Domestic Tier I PCBA, Domestic Sheet Metal, Domestic Injection Molding and other Custom Fabricated Services.

IPC announced strong book to bill ratios for June 2010 and PCB Solutions saw equally good ratios. We are curious to see how the industry fared in July as we saw a dramatic slow down symbolic of the quietness of 2009. We at PCB Solutions are confident we never pulled out of the recession but just seem to be maintaining aggressive web marketing and sales approaches for organic growth and profitability.

As we hold our strategy at PCB Solutions, we will ride out this market in a very strong, competitive position.

Please visit our home page at: www.pcb-solutions.com We are a supplier of Domestic and off-shore Rigid, Rigid-Flex and Flex Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs), Domestic Military PCBs, Domestic Tier I PCBA, Domestic Sheet Metal, Domestic Injection Molding and other Custom Fabricated Services.

http://www.pcb-solutions.com/pcb.html

http://www.pcb-solutions.com/flex.html

Please visit our home page at: www.pcb-solutions.com We are a supplier of Domestic and off-shore Rigid, Rigid-Flex and Flex Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs), Domestic Military PCBs, Domestic Tier I PCBA, Domestic Sheet Metal, Domestic Injection Molding and other Custom Fabricated Services.

http://www.pcb-solutions.com/pcb.html

http://www.pcb-solutions.com/flex.html

Tough Q1 & Q2 of 09

The month of April was an especially tough month for the PCB industry. Many firms had not seen bookings as low as April’s in 10 years. For many companies, April was a month that came along with hard decisions about cut backs and the financial future of their business. We had heard all along about the horror stories of PCB Shops in America closing their doors and it seemed like we had heard about at least 1 per month. In April, the latest announcement came from Universal Manufacturing in Seattle, WA. While we all desire to pick up new business, it is never wanted at the expense of another company’s livelihood.

‘And it came to pass’ as the Bible say sand so April passed, then May, then June, July and we are now starting into August; each month providing slightly better results than the previous. We too had to make tough decisions in May; new strategies were implemented and new marketing plans were created; costs were dramatically lowered and we have emerged out of the gloomy months leaner, more focused and poised for strong future profitability.

Rebounding Q3 & Q4?

On a national level the economy has been taking a slight turn in the positive direction. Good news for everyone as we stabilize and drift slowly towards an economy that will support growth again for the Printed Circuit Board industry.

For Industry news, these articles provide very positive news:

Key word: PCB PCB Makers Profit Growth (Dated July 22^nd 2009)

Market watchers have estimated PCB makers HannStar Board and Advence Printed Circuit Board (APCB) enjoyed significant profit growth in the second quarter, whereas Unimicron Technology managed to return to profitability.

HannStar Board shipped 15.9 million notebook PCBs in the second quarter, up 32.5% from the first. Orders for PCBs used in Xbox 360 games consoles also increased, said the company.

Fellow companies Nan Ya Printed Circuit Board (NPC), Tripod Technology, Yu Fo Electronic and Dynamic Electronics are also expected to have seen profit growth in the second quarter, the sources added.

Key word: PCB     8-10%growth (Dated July 20^th 2009)

Advence Printed Circuit Board (APCB) expects revenues from its plants in Taiwan and China to both grow 8-10% in third-quarter 2009 mainly due to increasing demand for PCBs used in notebook cameras.

APCB reported net profits of NT$178 million (US$5.42 million) for second-quarter 2009, more than four times the amount recorded in the first, which has helped the company to turn profitable. Profits contributed from China in the second quarter increased NT$58 million to NT$105 million.

APCB has received orders worth a total of NT$200 billion for July, and expects to see its monthly consolidated revenues grow 8% to NT$430 million.

In addition to notebook webcam products, CMOS PCBs will also be APCB’s key growth driver in the future. LED packaging and LED light bar PCBs are also expected to boost APCB’s growth, said the company.

Targeting the Future

PCB Solutions continues to dedicate itself to doing what it does best…delivering high-quality PCBs at a low cost and better lead times than larger firms. We service the small to medium sized companies that don’t have the resources to run off-shore and being to have the experience of dealing with the Chinese and their style of business.

We want to be the best in the world at delivering PCBs in this manner. As we have gone through the challenging 1^st half of 09 and changed so many aspects of the business, we feel a strong sense of confidence as we push to grow our business with a new marketing plan focused on Flex and Rigid Flex PCBs along with improving pricing and lead times of Rigid Printed Circuit Boards.

Flex and Rigid Flex Printed Circuit Boards

Our strategic move to add a 4^th Chinese supplier in 08 has proved to be a wise one. While qualifying a quality Flex and Rigid-Flex PCB shop is what we were hoping for, getting a U.S. based sales consultant that is hands down the best we have worked was simply a double win for the company.

Our new sales engineer has added an unprecedented level of knowledge and insight to designing and producing Flex and Rigid Flex Printed Circuit Boards. We now have the ability to help customers with their Flex needs AND also help them design their Flex and Rigid Flex PCBs. With a few of our clients, already this situation has proved to be a substantial help to lowering the price and increasing the customer service level when dealing with an off-shore vendor. You are now dealing with the factory when you are dealing with PCB Solutions.

Improvements to our website www.pcb-solutions.com continue on a weekly basis and our Flex and Rigid Flex pages will be filled with details on how to design and manufacture and Flex or Rigid Flex Printed Circuit Board. http://pcb-solutions.com/flex.htm

Summary

PCB Solutions moves forward in a very positive direction in the 2^nd half of 09. We have positioned ourselves to provide better quality products, services and lead times in the upcoming months and years ahead. We are excited about the future of PCB Solutions!

James Brown

V.P. Sales & Marketing

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