Requirements checklist
What to ask for when choosing software for electronic manufacturing services providers.
A checklist built from how electronic manufacturing services providers work, to print or save as a PDF and bring to any supplier meeting.
What the software should cover
Tick each one that matters to your business.
- Customer product and revision master
- Engineering change control
- Forecasts and purchase orders
- Component sourcing and shortages
- Build lots and serial numbers
- Test and programming records
- Shipments and returns
Roles that need their own access
Who logs in, and what each person may see or change.
- For programme managers
- For engineering
- For purchasing
- For production and test
- For quality and customer support
Reports to ask for
Ask to see each one with your own sample data.
- Customer products by revision and open change notices
- Forecast against reels on hand and on order at the distributor
- Excess and obsolete components by customer
- First-pass yield by product, AOI station and build lot
- Units traced to a capacitor lot or bootloader version
- RMA returns by failure cause, product and customer
- Consigned reels held per customer
Systems it may need to connect to
Note which ones you already run.
- Customer portal links
- Test fixture result files
- Label printers
- Accounting export
Questions for any vendor
Put these to every supplier you are comparing.
- Can a customer see their own builds?
- What happens to parts left over after a forecast drops?
- How are alternates approved?
- Can one product use both turnkey and consigned parts?
- Does it read firmware programming results?
- Can we trace a failure to a component lot?
- How do we move from spreadsheets?
- Is there a standard price?
Where the work usually breaks today
Circle the ones you recognise. They set the order of the project.
- Engineering changes reach the line late
- Forecasts move and components do not
- One shared stores holds many customers’ parts
- Serial numbers and test records live in separate places
- Each customer wants a different report
Prefer to talk it through? See the electronic manufacturing services providers page.