Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Component inventory levels:
production quickly comes to a halt if unknown
stock shortages are discovered
Desired production completion dates:
used to help determine priority within the
schedule
Anticipated yields, based on a design's historical results:
important to know
when deciding how many units to schedule
Production planning and scheduling is very much a science, one that has far-reaching
impacts on your operation's culture and the efficiency with which you are able to manu-
facture your products. Many factors must be considered when determining how to set up
your assembly process. Your production schedule will be the tool that is deployed to help
manage that process and must be responsive to and account for all of the variables in that
process.
Testing and Quality Control
You've now designed and made a thing. And you're proud of that thing, right? You want
your users and customers to be as happy with that thing as you are. But by the time you've
completed your first production run, if not well before then, you will probably have already
identified weaknesses in your assembly process that will make you question whether those
assembled products are truly up to your and your future customers' standards.
Never to be overlooked is the importance of confirming that what you've built does
what it is supposed to after it has been put together, while also finding methods for testing
product functionality that do so as simply and as efficiently as possible. Testing can be a
time-consuming process, but is an absolute must. It becomes more important the less re-
fined your assembly processes are. Although it is quite difficult to be absolutely perfect
(as defined by a single defective product never getting into a customer's hands), your
product's reputation depends on making every reasonable effort possible to minimize the
number of undesirable experiences that your customers have with your product. If you
find a manufacturing run has gone awry, see
Chapter 13
,
Troubleshooting from Your
In the early days of SparkFun's manufacturing operations, the assembly processes em-
ployed were far from perfect. As a result, a great deal of emphasis was placed on fully
testing the built circuit boards to identify and correct all of the boards that experienced
flaws during the assembly process. To some degree, performing a more detailed test for
each board was the easiest method of ensuring high-quality, fully functioning boards for
the customers. The other option was perfecting every step in the assembly process, but
that path would have required a much larger investment in equipment, tools, and training
that could not yet be afforded on SparkFun's bootstrapped budget. As a result of that de-
