Title After-market services
Folkert Wierda and Ted Gardham
After-market services
After-market services (AMS) are often products, the increased likelihood they will much broader than just repair services.
an afterthought when designing and have malfunctions and errors. The percent It consists of depot repair, repair logistics
manufacturing products. However, with of cost to repair electronics continues to rise and swap services, technical support and
the passing of the Waste Electrical and rapidly relative to the price of the product data management, vendor management,
Electronic Equipment (WEEE ) directive by There are five levels of repair services. materials management, early life returns
the European Union, companies are being Level 0, are products beyond economical management, end user management and
forced to examine how they collect, recycle repair (BER). They account for 5% of engineering services. Figure 1 defines these
and recover their electrical goods. That, products. Level 1 is cosmetic repair, services.
combined with an emphasis on all things inspection, and test only and encompasses Increasingly, OEMs are turning to EMS
‘green’ and a less than robust economy, has the largest portion of the market for providers to handle some level of warranty
led to thoughts of after market services. In products requiring service or repair, about repair, remanufacturing and reverse logistics
other words, collection, repairing, recycling 40%. Level 2, at 13% market share, are in order to off-load tasks they no longer
or disposing of products when they no modular replacement and components consider core to their operation. The
longer function or when they are replaced that need replacing, but that don’t require aim is to reduce costs while maintaining
by newer models. soldering. Board level repair that requires or improving customer support levels.
AMS equals approximately 3% of the soldering only and no BGA rework or Outsourcing of AMS is a natural extension
global electronics market, which consists replacement is Level 3 and accounts for of the current manufacturing model, and
of consumer electronics, computers and 37%. Level 4 only makes up 5% of the this trend towards outsourcing is continuing
communications. Today, electronic products market and is board level repair consisting for global OEMs.
must integrate several functions into one of BGA rework and repair. AMS is becoming an important part
of the EMS value chain especially in the
communications technology industry. It
makes sense to think about AMS when
a company is at the design and sourcing
phases of a product. How easy is a product
to repair or tear down? Are all the parts
disposed of easily or recyclable? What
are the costs associated with repair or
recycling of the product? By designing
modules or making the product easy to
disassemble, using fewer parts, substituting
environmentally friendly materials, etc.,
considerable savings of time, resources and
money can be realized when a product needs
servicing or is no longer useable.
It also makes sense to have these
services done by a company that is set up
to manufacture the original product. They
already have the tools, parts and personnel
in place for assembly, test, rework and repair
of these products. Most companies will
have an ERP or inventory management and
control system so they can track the product
through its supply chain. They are familiar
with where to source the parts as well as
the logistics required for acquiring parts
and transporting the new or refurbished
products to their destination.
OEMs are looking to outsource AMS
to meet certain needs and fulfill particular
functions they no longer want, or are
able, to do themselves. Although there are
Figure 1 – After-market services provided by EMS companies
end device. The higher the complexity of the The scope of after-market services is Continued on page 56
46 – Global SMT & Packaging – September 2008 www.globalsmt.net
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