Is there a proven electronic component selection process that will help you get into manufacturing with a minimum of stress? Actually, yes, and it can be broken down into these 18 steps.
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Introducing the component selection process
The electronic component selection process is essential for any electronic device and is more involved than many people think. Proper electronic component selection is not actually as simple as going to Radio Shack, buying a part, and just using it as long as it works. Today’s manufacturers need to make sure that their components to be used in mass production meet certain criteria. There are around 18 steps or tasks that make up electronic component selection, and each step for selecting components could take weeks, it’s a slow process. (01:17)
The theoretical part of electronic component selection
1. Define your Requirements
To define your requirements you need to understand your product, project, and use case environment/s, its functions, the users’ needs, reliability requirements, etc, and consider all of those points when sourcing each component. You’ll be thinking about what the product does and how the component helps it achieve its goals. The key point here is that you need to do this for all of the parts you’re purchasing. You will consider the specifications, cost, etc, per part at this point.
2. Select the Key Components
Your product’s key components are the ones that are most important and provide critical functions, aesthetics, etc. For example, it may be that your product needs to use one very specific type of chip, so you’d select this chip and build the product around it as there are no other alternatives. Key components may especially be CTQ components, high-value components, those that have a long lead time, single-source components, and others that are considered to be ‘critical’ as these are, naturally, the most important for your product to perform correctly and be able to be mass-produced.
3. Analyze the Operating Environment/s
Where will your product be used? You will need to consider if the components you’re selecting will be able to cope with the intended operating environments. For example, is the product only meant for cold environments, for example, a snowmobile? If so, the components’ abilities to withstand the high temperatures of a desert environment probably aren’t a key consideration for you in comparison to their ability to function correctly in the cold. If the wrong component is chosen, you can bet that reliability issues will occur later when the product is used in an environment that the component isn’t fit for.
4. Identify Critical Parameters per component
Think about the range of parameters required by each component, such as voltage, frequency range, tolerances, etc. You should take your needs into account when identifying parameters so you only select components that perform as needed. For example, selecting a resistor with tight tolerances when you don’t need tolerances in that range will cost you a lot more than any average resistor. (04:20)
The practical part of electronic component selection
5. Source the Components
Now you know what kinds of components you need and how they need to perform, it’s time to go out and do the electronic component selection for real. Online distributor websites like Digikey and Alibaba are helpful sources of components that you can buy in small quantities to try out in prototypes. You can also go directly to component supplier websites as many have them now. Don’t forget to download the datasheets at the same time so you can compare the specifications of your components. If your product is very exciting for the manufacturer, they may send you free samples of the parts and even an application engineer who will help you design it into your product. (10:04)
6. Consider the Supply Chain
Let’s say you’ve selected two components. Pay attention to the suppliers themselves. Are they well-established and do they have experience and professional operations? Or are they new to the business, or even just a trading company or distributor? Dealing directly with an experienced manufacturer is the best option for long-term stability and availability of the parts. Also, consider finding a second-source supplier, especially for key components, so you can turn to them if there is an issue with the main supplier that could disrupt your supply. (15:26)
7. Check for Obsolescence
You do not want to go to the trouble of designing a new product with a specific component only to find that that component is now obsolete when it’s time to launch. Design engineers need to check on the lifecycle of the part during the sourcing process and confirm that selected components will be available for the longer term. (16:53)
8. Analyze costs
Component costs will be lower when you purchase in larger quantities so you need to analyze the cost structure of different suppliers so you can select one that provides you with an acceptable price for the quantity you require. If your supplier’s cost is too high, this will impact your ability to offer the product at an affordable price. (17:34)
9. Selecting Components of the right Reliability and Quality
Finding a part that works as you need it to is step one, but you also need to make sure that it will be reliable for the expected lifetime of the product. The design engineers need to know what your reliability needs are. Without performing reliability testing, you may not know that the part can’t handle changes in temperature or humidity well over time, or fluctuations in electricity. Ideally, you’ll select parts that have some reliability margin, for example, they can handle temperatures above what you reasonably expect the product to be used in. (21:01)
10. Purchase Second-Source Components
Be sure that the purchasing department also has second-source components in the BOM that you can buy if your primary components aren’t available. It’s a common mistake that the design engineers forget to inform purchasing that they need a second-source component during the electronic component selection process and then, when things go wrong and one is required, everything has to be delayed while they go about their business of sourcing and validating one. (24:53)
11. Component Database
Most manufacturers set up a component database which is updated with up-to-date datasheets, version numbers, etc. Version control is important so people have access to the right information and select the right parts as and when needed. (26:28)
12. Design for Excellence, especially DFM
DfX helps to derisk the product before it goes into manufacturing because the product is designed with certain principles in mind, for example, design for reliability places an emphasis on designing the product in such a way that it is more durable and reliable. If DFR is not done, you will find more reliability issues occurring in the products either during manufacturing or, worse, in the field. You can apply DfX principles that suit your needs to your product design. Design for Manufacturing, or DFM , is a key choice because you design the product to be more easily manufacturable and at a lower cost. (29:08)
13. Compliance and Standards
During sourcing, you need to check the component’s datasheet to confirm if it complies with your market’s relevant safety standards and regulations. Let’s say you manufacture a toy and it’s later found that you used non-compliant paint with lead in it. That toy is almost certainly going to be banned from sale which would be a disaster for your business. Someone needs to be responsible for researching and checking the compliance requirements, as they keep changing as time progresses. (30:54)
14. Simulating and Prototyping the Product
At this point, you’re ready to start putting everything together and create samples which are also known as prototypes. For new and unique technologies, getting a first prototype in hand could take years, but as long as you have done the other steps carefully, you should be able to make a prototype that doesn’t suffer from many problems likely to slow you down. Once the first prototype is made, subsequent iterations where you add more features, aesthetics, etc, will be easier as you learn from what came before and use a lot of the same components, techniques, etc. (33:49)
15. Documentation and Record-Keeping
This is a difficult task for design engineers as they make a lot of changes over the course of working on the product, but if they don’t document and record them clearly this can lead to problems as anyone joining the company, for example, won’t necessarily know what the most up-to-date changes were. The lessons-learnt database may be useful here for tracking changes, fixes, and learnings, along with dates, and who made a change or fix, etc. (35:14)
16. Design Reviews
You should now have a prototype in hand that has been tested for reliability and is getting towards being complete and ready to manufacture, but before that can happen a design review (which is a type of milestone review) should occur. In the meeting, all engineers involved with the product and the management will go through all aspects of the design and product to focus on each goal and requirement. If it is deemed to have met a requirement, that is ticked off. Ultimately, we want to validate and verify that the product is reaching our requirements or goals for performance, reliability, quality, etc, and that the product appears to be working as expected. (38:12)
17. Lock the Bill of Materials (BOM)
If the product has passed the design review it’s ready to go to manufacturing, but before then you need to lock the BOM. The purchasing team will call component vendors to confirm costs, inform them of the order and quantity, and confirm that the parts are also available. Everyone needs to be coordinated at this point to make sure that the process of going into manufacturing runs smoothly, for example, the purchasing team need to make sure that all of the components are ordered and will be delivered by a certain date when manufacturing is planned to start. Then the wheels start turning to set up the manufacturing assembly line/s and test those processes as well, hire operators, write work instructions, etc, in order to be prepared to go into mass-production. (41:13)
18. Pilot Run
Your fully tested and validated component samples that will be used in mass production need to be provided to production who will perform a pilot run with them to test the production processes but also confirm that the components can be assembled and manufactured into the product correctly. This will pick up production issues, packaging problems, and many more things that you can then fix before too many products start coming off the production line. (44:45)