Author: Jon Baxter Executive Director Sales & Operations EMEA, Solsta
Ensuring quality throughout any product lifecycle is paramount. From component sourcing to managing obsolescence, every stage demands meticulous attention to detail to uphold reliability, performance, and customer satisfaction.
Sourcing and managing obsolescence are essentially the two bookends of quality assurance; ensuring the components are of the highest quality and marry up to specification is key to a positive outcome, whilst managing obsolescence sees organisations transition or replace key components. It’s vital that the replacement products meet current standards and client expectations.
Supplier selection
Sourcing quality components is critical; the integrity of these components directly impacts the performance and longevity of the final product. When it comes to sourcing, there’s some due diligence that needs to be undertaken.
Choosing reputable suppliers is key. Thoroughly vetting suppliers for their track record, certifications, and adherence to industry standards mitigates the risk of counterfeit or substandard components entering the supply chain.
Establishing traceability throughout the supply chain is essential for identifying the source of components in case of quality issues or recalls. Comprehensive documentation, including certificates of compliance and material safety data sheets, facilitates traceability and regulatory compliance.
Quality standards
Quality standards are a good indicator of a supplier’s capabilities and compliance. For example, Solsta was recently awarded the ISO 13485:2016 accreditation. With more than 35 years’ experience in the medical sector, the accreditation recognises the high standard the business has been operating at throughout, formalising the team’s skillset and capabilities and providing an enhanced level of assurance to its customers and partners.
The accreditation specifies requirements for a quality management system where an organisation needs to demonstrate its ability to provide medical devices and related services that consistently meet customer and applicable regulatory requirements.
Having this in place helps customers mitigate risk within their own organisation, by partnering with a trusted and proven provider who can meet their complex and precise requirements.
Lifecycle planning
Obsolescence management presents a significant challenge in the electronics industry, as components become obsolete due to technological advancements, component discontinuation, or supplier changes. Effective obsolescence management requires a proactive approach and innovative solutions, such as incorporating lifecycle planning into product development strategies from the outset.
Working with a trusted partner that can advise on components with longer lifecycles and actively consider future availability during the design phase, means customers can mitigate the impact of obsolescence.
Whilst obsolescence has become part of the norm within the consumer market, it can cause major challenges within fields such as aerospace, defence, and medical technology – particularly for highly complex and expensive equipment where the entire system must be taken into consideration when replacing a part to ensure stringent requirements and regulations continue to be met.
Medical technology case study
One of Solsta’s customers faced a supplier gap that needed to be bridged when one of their suppliers announced the decision to discontinue its entire production line of optoelectronic sensors. The customer needed to source replacement sensors that were ‘like for like’ both mechanically and electronically to avoid lengthy and costly re-verification and re-validation processes, necessary due to the stringent industry requirements and regulations that exist; however, this would prove extremely challenging. With no specific technical detail on the individual components, Solsta had to source suitable alternatives that would provide a similar function and output under the same operating conditions, all whilst keeping quality assurance front of mind.
From the design perspective, there was no 3D model to work from, therefore we had to look at all parts of the mechanical and electronic design in order to design our own housings. This included all parts of the process, the equipment, as well as specific areas such as injection mould tooling. This was an opportunity to deep dive into the internal structure and look at how we might design a more effective solution and improve the reliability and robustness, all of which was achieved on multiple occasions, with the new products far surpassing the original obsolete components in both reliability and quality.
For example, one switch was originally manufactured by soldering wires directly onto the leads of the optical devices. In a very tight space, this could lead to short circuits and other long-term reliability complications.
We changed the internal design to a solution based on a very small PCB and standard production practices, improving its quality and leading to a more robust and reliable product which was much easier to build. Whilst the project was focused on providing a 100% drop-in replacement that meant the customer didn’t have to change anything within the machines to allow it to work, we were able to improve the quality as well as deliver on the objective.
Quality assurance is foundational to success within the electronics landscape. Organisations need to find partners that can provide the complete cradle-to-grave package of cost-effective, reliable supply of franchised components, trusted sourcing of hard-to-find products and finally, proactive management of component obsolescence and end of life scenarios.
Solsta has established a wider network of trusted, verified suppliers, enabling it to source products for lines it is not franchised for and thereby offer customers a more complete service. Solsta’s experts have a proven track record in sourcing product from across the globe with a unique combination of assurance and agility. They verify all sources and carry out full due diligence to mitigate risk.
In this way, Solsta can provide quality assurance every step of the way.
This article originally appeared in the September issue of Procurement Pro.
