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PCB Quoting
- by Matt Stevenson

Here we are in the 21st century and technology is at an all-time high, across all sectors, and it continues to get higher.  As many advances as there have been in wearables, automotive, consumer electronics, IoT etc, some things tend to have stagnated in the 1900’s. PCB quoting is one of those things that seems to have really not advanced from the Design Engineer or purchaser standpoint. In discussions with people that purchase PCBs regularly I have heard that for the majority of projects their process is to call or email the PCB manufacturer they have always done business with and request a quote or they send the project to multiple suppliers for quote request to satisfy a purchasing requirement. Once the requests are sent they have to wait usually hours but sometimes days for the quote to be complete and returned. For someone that is in a hurry or on a deadline the waiting can truly be the hardest part.  

According to PCBdirectory.com there about 550 listing for US based PCB manufacturers. Perusing through that list of companies there are plenty that are not actually manufacturers - companies that either broker PCBs from another source (including overseas), PCB assembly houses that will buy boards from a manufacturer, or some companies with multiple listings. These brokers and assemblers will generally mark up the cost of the pcb to those that are buying, increasing the cost and also further distancing you from the manufacturer by having to go through a middle man.  By my quick elimination and estimation based on these the actual number of PCB manufacturers still based in the US, it is probably closer to 300.  Of the 300 PCB manufacturers, most of them do have a website (how very 20th century) but their quoting call to action is still to call or email, further supporting the stagnated process. There are a handful of those companies that have progressed to adding an RFQ form where you are able to input some of the information about your design requirements. These forms may improve the turn time of your quote and potentially the accuracy, but not by drastic amounts. Then there are a few actual PCB manufacturers that have actually created online quoting where you can input your needs and design parameters and get almost real time pricing with the click of a button, shortening the quote turn time from hours or days to just minutes. Unfortunately the number of manufacturers that have implemented online quoting is surprisingly small and some are implemented better than others for sure. This is definitely a step forward in the grand scheme of things.

The next evolution of the quoting process is really only demonstrated by one manufacturer: that is quoting with real time dynamic pricing. You are able to see how each selection you make impacts the quote price in real time putting the power in your hands to know where the cost drivers are and how you can make allowances to get what you need and keep the project on budget. Sunstone is the one manufacturer out there that has an online, real time dynamic quoting option. 

Have you tried Sunstone’s OneQuote form recently?  Do you have any feedback to make it even better?  Let me know I would love to hear from you.