In recent years, with the progress of science and technology, the PCB industry has also entered a mode of rapid development, and because the global PCB continues to migrate to Asia, especially Chinese Mainland, Chinese Mainland has rapidly become a major PCB production country. According to statistics, the total output value of PCB industry has grown from 3.368 billion US dollars in 2000 to 21.636 billion US dollars in 2012, becoming the world's largest producer of PCBs. It is predicted that China's pcb industry will continue to maintain a rapid growth trend in the next few years, and its global market position will continue to improve; From 2012 to 2017, the compound annual growth rate of China's pcb output value could reach 6.0%, and the total output value could reach US $28.972 billion by 2017, accounting for 44.13% of the total global pcb output value.

The above data is of course an inspiration and incentive for people in our PCB industry, and also gives us confidence to continue to move forward in the industry. However, in the past two years, the news about China's PCB industry has always been mixed: the good news is that more and more large PCB enterprises have been listed or will be listed, such as Guangdong Edon, Zhengye Technology, Shenghong Technology, Bomin Electronics, Jingwang Chongda and Wuzhu... The listing of these enterprises means that they have more and more strong economic backing to optimize enterprise resources and products, so that they have more and more advantages in market competition; On the other hand, it is worrisome that more and more small and medium-sized PCB enterprises will be closed down, even some bosses will run away directly, leaving a pile of workers and suppliers who have not settled their wages with a debt. The rest of the small and medium-sized factories that are still hard supported, most of them have already been in a loss state, but are still struggling to turn over. These facts seem to tell us that the PCB industry has gradually begun to show polarization, with the strong becoming stronger and the weak becoming weaker and weaker until it finally disappears. What is the reason for this polarization? After understanding with the bosses or managers of several PCB plants, the author summarized the following points:

1. The confusion of the management system leads to the decrease of orders and the increase of costs

Most small factories were created when PCB products were in short supply. At the initial stage of factory construction, due to high PCB unit price, high profits and sufficient orders, they were easy to survive without a sense of crisis, so they did not give too much consideration to factory management issues. Since it is easy to survive, of course, more and more people are investing, so the growth rate of PCB plants is also getting faster and faster. The supply and demand relationship of PCB gradually tends to balance until the supply exceeds demand. At this time, order receiving depends on the advantages of PCB plants to attract customers. Delivery date and quality are the two key indexes that customers care most about. What is the guarantee of delivery date and quality? Relying on the excellent management system, imagine a factory with disordered management. The employees operate at will, the production parameters are adjusted according to their feelings, the process sequence is not controlled, the quality inspection is not implemented, the production schedule is disordered, the allocation is unreasonable, and the production is arranged after the boards with tight delivery date. Because of the process capability, the boards cannot continue to be produced in a certain process, and the boards are scrapped near the delivery date... How to ensure the quality and delivery date in such a disordered situation? Without the guarantee of quality and delivery time, customers have more opportunities to choose suppliers, so of course they will give orders to PCB manufacturers with good quality and delivery time.

Another problem caused by the management confusion is the increase of hidden costs, such as the increase of scrap costs due to quality problems, the increase of man hours and labor costs due to the extension of production cycle, and even the increase of transportation costs (for example, for some products to catch the delivery time, it is necessary to change the automobile transportation to air transportation, or drive to the customer's factory specially).

2. Obsolete equipment restricts PCB's manufacturing capability and increases potential quality problems

Most small and medium-sized PCB plants in China started to grow in 2003, so the production equipment has been 10 years old, and the service life of PCB equipment is generally only about 10 years, so these equipment are almost scrapped. However, small and medium-sized PCB plants cannot afford to buy new equipment for replacement due to lack of capital reserves, so they can only make do with it. How can old and aged equipment produce high-precision products? Even equipment failures often lead to quality problems, or production failure affects the delivery date, which is undoubtedly worse on the basis of chaotic management.

3. Environmental requirements restrict the development of PCB enterprises

In recent years, with the improvement of China's environmental awareness, the requirements for environmental protection have become more and more strict. However, most of the small plants did not obtain independent environmental protection licenses at the beginning of their construction, which makes them only rent plants with environmental protection licenses to produce, and the wastewater treatment is also handed over to the Environmental Protection Bureau, forcing PCB enterprises to be limited in geographical selection and increasing environmental protection costs.

4. Fierce market competition leads to lower unit price and thinner profit

Since some small and medium-sized enterprises have lost the advantage of receiving orders in terms of delivery time and quality, they can only attract customers by lowering prices and maintain their survival with meager profits, sometimes even at a loss.

5. Changes in the order structure of upstream electronic products lead to the development of PCB products towards high-precision

With the change of consumers' psychology, terminal electronic products gradually turn to the direction of high quality and high precision. When smart phones first appeared, consumers were looking for fresh experiences. The first choice for the public was of course the low-cost Sanzhai products, which had very low requirements for quality, as well as PCB. When consumers' freshness disappears, they turn to the pursuit of high quality. At this time, counterfeit products will be eliminated. Some brand products, such as Apple, Samsung and Huawei, will gradually occupy the market. Of course, when brand manufacturers that dominate the market choose PCB suppliers, they will not consider small factories without any advantages and guarantees.

6. The vicious circle leads to difficulties in capital turnover

The decrease of PCB orders, the decrease of unit price, and the increase of hidden costs eventually led to the decrease of PCB profits, even losses, and finally led to difficulties in capital turnover. However, the material suppliers of PCB factories themselves have low support for small factories. In this case, if there is a turnover problem again, they will choose to stop supplying, which ultimately leads to the inability of PCB factories to operate and "close the doors".

Although it is the law of social development and market development that big fish eat small fish, it does not mean that all small fish will be eaten. There will always be small fish lucky to escape from big fish, and so will PCB enterprises. As long as some PCB enterprises have enough countermeasures to face the fierce market competition, they can always survive in the cracks. The author thinks that small and medium-sized PCB plants can improve from the following aspects:

1. Select a suitable ERP system to help the enterprise establish a good management system.

With the rapid development of information technology, the use of ERP to help management has become an inevitable trend of enterprise development. A proper set of ERP can guarantee the quality and delivery time of enterprises, increase the order receiving advantage of PCB enterprises, and help PCB enterprises to save costs, which is specifically reflected in the following aspects: a. Automatic scheduling allows you to ensure delivery without worry There is no delayed delivery and no customer claim; b. Seamless handover of production management, no waste and rework caused by human factors; c. When a contract is entered into the system, the system will automatically prompt how much and where the inventory is. If the inventory is sufficient, it can be shipped directly without being included in the production line, saving time and increasing customer reputation; Reduce the land occupation of finished product warehouse, and save warehouse costs and personnel costs; d. The system is integrated with OA finance CRM ERP. There is one system, and basically no other system is needed. Several systems are integrated, and the cost performance ratio is extremely high; e. After a contract is issued, it is directly transferred to the engineering department. After the project is completed, it is directly transferred to the planned card removal and then released to the production line. Each process is very clear. It is easy to see where and who is doing what in the system; When the working status of all personnel is clear, who dares to slow down or slow down? Who dares to be careless? Of course, the efficiency will be improved accordingly; f. If the product quality is not up to standard, where the problem occurred, and who did it, can be found in the system, and the enterprise can adjust accordingly to avoid the same problem next time; g. The longer the system is used, the more data it accumulates. It is very effective for analyzing the problems of the enterprise and the trend it should follow, and helps the boss make correct decisions.

Do you think that when all farmers start to use time-saving and labor-saving and efficient machinery to produce, farmers who rely on the original farming operations can still get rich? Nowadays, in this era of rapid development of high-tech, an enterprise without ERP management system is like a farmer relying on the original farming operation, and never has a chance to turn around.

2. Develop in the direction of special process and increase the advantage of order receiving.

In the fierce market competition, small and medium-sized PCB factories have no advantage in ordinary orders, so they can only attract customers by special processes, such as high-precision fast samples and small batches; Cold door products with special plates or special process design; These special types of boards will increase opportunities for PCB enterprises, while the profits will be relatively high, which will greatly increase opportunities for PCB enterprises to survive.

3. Resource integration within the industry

The era of winning by fighting alone has passed. Now it is the era of winning by team. Should our small and medium-sized PCB plants also consider resource integration and complementary advantages? For example, the circuit board factories of the same industry are merged to keep warm and increase the overall strength; The vertical industrial chains are merged to save costs and shorten the production cycle, such as the merger of electronic factories and PCB factories, and the merger of PCB factories and material suppliers or processors.

4. Turn to the supporting industrial chain development of PCB industry

Due to the improvement of environmental protection requirements for PCBs in Guangdong and the increase of production costs, since 2010, many PCB factories have been transferred to the mainland, but the supporting industrial chain has not been transferred with it, resulting in serious constraints on PCB order receiving and production. For example, the lack of logistics has led to some PCB orders having to be transferred for many times before reaching customers, extending the delivery time, increasing the transportation cost and quality hazards in the transportation process; Other material suppliers and processors are almost absent in the mainland, which leads to longer material procurement time for PCB enterprises and weaker technical service support... In this case, why not turn to the PCB industry chain with huge market space?