Engineering support service provider PCB Planet has launched two new services for EMS and design companies. As the electronics industry comes out of recession EMS providers are quoting for more jobs and handling more orders, stretching their engineering resources. PCB Planet's services, available 24/7/52, form a seamless extension to in-house resources, focussed on two key areas, data preparation for RFQs and machine programming.

Tight margins mean that RFQs have to be as accurate as possible. Accuracy demands engineering expertise, but if the quotations do not lead to orders valuable in-house engineering resources have been wasted. From their base in India, experienced PCB Planet engineers prepare the necessary data for quotations, freeing up in-house engineers and in-house expertise for more mission-critical tasks. Typical services delivered by PCB Planet include BOM analysis and component verification. The EMS provider gets a set of data in his preferred format ready for quotation.

At the other end of the process, more orders mean that assembly and test equipment must be reprogrammed more frequently. PCB Planet works to the EMS provider's specifications to generate sets of programming data for pick-and-place and component inspection machines.

PCB designers face similar pressures on time and resources, distracting them from their core creative competencies. In response, PCB Planet provides a range of support services to handle necessary but time-consuming, lower added-value tasks. These services include schematic capture, PCB layout, and the development and management of component libraries.

Sapan Chokshi, PCB Planet's Engineering Manager, adds: "We have developed a very effective business model to deliver engineering support to bare PCB fabricators. Our clients today include major fabricators in USA, Europe and Asia. Recent partnerships with specialist companies have added new engineering know-how to our support service expertise. This has allowed us to extend our model to the other two legs of the PCB manufacturing cycle, design and assembly".

For more information on the new services go to www.pcbplanet.com or contact patrick.martin@pcbplanet.com

About PCB Planet

PCB Planet comprises a team of 180 graduate engineers providing engineering support services to the global PCB industry. Set up in Gandhinagar, India in 2000, PCB Planet today numbers among its clients many of the leading PCB manufacturers in USA, Europe and Asia.