Electronics andPCB assembly
Contract electronics manufacturers and PCB assemblers are our clients in this sector. An NPI engineer at a device maker, planning a first build, checks the IPC class you build to and the test you have in house before anything else on the page; we read your capability page and your quotes with the same eye and say what to fix first.
Start with the free Findability Check, which reports within the hour whether the AI tools name you for contract electronics manufacturing, or book the Sales Engine Audit, from £750.
What an NPI engineer checks before a first build
Before a first build, an NPI engineer checks the IPC-A-610 class you build to and whether you have J-STD-001 operators, the finest pitch and smallest package you place, what test you have in house (AOI, X-ray for BGAs, flying probe or ICT), whether you hold ISO 13485 for medical work, how you buy components and handle obsolescence, and whether you can trace a reel to a board. The approvals and the test list are what the AI tools quote from the page.
The question a device maker puts to Claude
“Which UK CEMs build to IPC-A-610 Class 3 and AS9100 with in-house AOI for batches of 500?”
An NPI engineer puts that to Claude or ChatGPT; Gemini and Perplexity get the same question. Each comes back with a shortlist, and the firms on it are the ones whose sites state the class, the approvals and the test equipment in plain text.
To see whether you are one of the firms named, run the free Findability Check; it records every supplier the assistants name and reports within the hour.
Which public signals mean a device maker is about to buy
For a CEM the signals are product launches and funding rounds at device makers, new sites for defence and medical OEMs, and the hiring of test and NPI engineers. A device maker that has raised money and is hiring an NPI engineer is usually choosing a manufacturing partner in the months that follow.
We read the funding announcements, the trade press and the job boards, and score each item against the board technologies and the volumes you run. A funding round followed by an NPI vacancy is the pattern we write on, and the email goes to the engineering lead named in the announcement, once you have approved it.
The capability page comes first
We start with the capability page and the questions a buyer asks of it. We rewrite the page around board technologies, test equipment, IPC class and traceability, so the answer to each question is the first sentence under its heading, and we add the same questions and answers in the page code, as the labels the AI tools read. The lines go in a table of their own.
| Line | IPC class | Test |
|---|---|---|
| SMT line 1, Yamaha, to 0201 and 0.4 mm pitch | Class 3, soldered to J-STD-001 | 3D AOI on every board, X-ray for BGA |
| SMT line 2, Yamaha | Class 2 | 3D AOI on every board |
| Through-hole, selective soldering and press-fit | Class 3 | Flying probe for low volume, ICT fixtures for production |
| Box build and cable assembly | Class 2, harnesses to IPC/WHMA-A-620 | Functional test to the customer's specification, 100% electrical test on harnesses |
Example rows; the page carries your own lines.
Then we look at how enquiries are handled, because a CEM's quote needs a bill of materials priced, and the time that takes is where enquiries are lost.
The audit for a CEM
The Sales Engine Audit reads your capability page and a sample of your quotes, records whether the assistants name you for the IPC class and the test capability you build to, and, on the Full tier, maps where enquiries are lost between the RFQ and the priced bill of materials. The fixes come back in priority order, each with a rough cost and effort, as a written report and a one-hour call to go through it, within a week of our having access to your site and quotes; the full description and the three tiers are on the Find out where you stand page.
Other sectors
The audit fora CEM is £750
Prices exclude VAT. Monthly items stop at any month end.
The audit says where a CEM with your board technologies loses enquiries, on the capability page or between the RFQ and the priced bill of materials.
If you would rather talk first, open the booking page.