SWITCHES Lighting effects
Know your local market when sourcing integrated assemblies
Tim Congdon, technical program director at CCL Design UK discuses how local sourcing of integrated electronics drives down both risks and costs – and leads to greater innovation
China, then the rest of the world’s manufacturing hubs were disrupted by widespread lockdowns and the enforced isolation of workers because of rapidly rising Covid-19 cases. This major disrupter delayed the
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manufacture, finishing, and dispatch of global electronics, and then added to this, we have more recently seen that the price of shipping goods from Asia to Europe has soared, with recent data from Xeneta showing that there has been a $6,000 rise in shipping costs per container since the end of April 2021. Service levels delivered by shippers have also plummeted - with reports that containers have even been left off vessels after paying these high rates. With a greater awareness to the risks of
global sourcing from unplanned events, and now with the costs of shipping to the UK from Asia escalating, many businesses are not only looking to source closer to home – either from the UK or Europe – but in the electronics sector they are now looking for greater
40 OCTOBER 2021 | ELECTRONICS TODAY
he risks of global sourcing have been highlighted during the pandemic as first
integration during the manufacturing process. Through the greater integration of the electronics interface, businesses not only benefit from reduced production costs, but they can also benefit from a fusion of technologies blended together during the process. A good example of how products have
become more integrated is in the switches, displays and UIs market. For instance, even just five years ago, if you were looking to source a Human Machine Interface (HMI) switch, it would be a very different process than it is today, and at the same time, manufacturing costs were unable to compete with the traditionally low-cost manufacturing areas of the world.
How things have changed Away from the logistical issues and focusing on the technological aspects of the industry there are two key aspects driving this change. The complexity of functionality has driven design for manufacture to incorporate not only more functional technology but also the ability of integrating
complete assemblies ensuring the most effective blending of technologies. This then has the benefit of streamlining the supply chain and manufacturing process to the extent of slashing time in development, and hence time to market by up to 70%. For example, within the manufacture of
switches there are numerous instances of this but we can look at the following two examples during the manufacturing process which helps take away layers of complexity and additional cost. If we break down a typical interface, there
are four key parts/layers. The graphical interface layer, which is the only part the user generally sees, the light guide and diffusing layer, the printed electronics including lighting circuitry and sensors/switches and the final controller layer. In some cases these may all be incorporated within a moulding. Each of these layers has its technical
challenges and traditionally it is not uncommon for these layers to be provided by separate suppliers and finally assembled by the end product provider. But ensuring that each layer integrates with the others is
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