- Delivery time: Quick delivery greatly influences board prices. Allow as much time as schedule permits. Don't ask for a rush only to find out a special order chip or transformer has a 10 week delivery and you cannot proceed with assembly. Longer lead times allow your board house flexibility for other quick turn work, so yours can be at lower cost.
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- Quantities ordered: Order the higher quantities whenever possible. You may be better off maintaining a higher inventory of say 3 or 5 months worth. Smaller runs mean your board house is less likely to panelize and maximize the number of images on a panel. Larger runs are simply more efficient. If your board manufacturer has to stock them until you need them, you can bet there is a hidden charge somewhere.
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- Number of layers: Limit the number of layers as much as possible. If higher quantities are anticipated, spend the extra time and money in engineering to minimize layer count. Layout engineering is a one time expense, manufacturing is not!
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- Small hole size: Try not to use hole sizes smaller than .028. They limit stack drilling, and drilling one board at a time greatly increases machine time. Drills also break more often and copper plating becomes more difficult. Holes .021 and smaller must be stack drilled 1 deep. Holes .022 thru .027 can be stack drilled 2 deep. Holes .028 and larger can be stack drilled 3 deep.
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- Copper weight: Do not specify 2 oz. copper unless you are sure you need it. 2 oz. material cost about 40% more than 1 oz.
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- Internal cut-outs: Avoid these if at all possible. These and very large holes require special routing. Also, make the board as small as possible.
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- Materials: choose standard materials (FR4) and standard process unless having good reason
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- Standards: Adopt PCB design, artwork and manufacturing standards: By adopting standards, you will insure your product can be manufactured for the lowest cost possible. Your artwork should be of such quality that literally any board house can build it without problems. Also provide the manufacturer with a drill file, a fabrication detail drawing, and Gerber data instead of film whenever possible
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