I’m always annoyed when ordering with amazing-assembly that I only see a total price for the BOM components. The individual component prices are only displayed with a rough scale of four euro symbols.
This makes it difficult to spot errors or optimise component costs.
Displaying the prices would have several advantages:
Recognise if the MPN has been entered for a whole roll by mistake, resulting in an unnecessary order.
Recognise where there is potential for optimisation. Expensive individual components would quickly stand out, enabling you to look for alternatives.
If a single component is the only part purchased from a separate supplier due to lack of availability, extra delivery charges are incurred for this component only. If I could see this, I could consider using an alternative component instead.
In my opinion, this would be a very useful feature, providing more transparency on component costs in the BOM.
We are always open to better communicate BOM pricing! When starting Amazing Assembly a few years ago, we displayed prices. Unfortunately, instead of improved comprehensibility, it sparked confusion. Our algorithms are optimizing for the lowest assembly cost of the total price for a dedicated quantity. It therefore respects various aspects, e.g., additional manufacturing buffer (which, e.g., depends on assembly method and the component price and type).
We therefore decided for a scale, allowing identification of cost drivers. Would a more fine-grain scale improve your situation?
I am curious about the full reel MPN issue, do you have an example for me?
Out of curiosity, which kind of components would you consider easy to replace / the best candidates for optimization?
I do not believe that the problem can be solved by a finer-grained scale.
An example for 10 boards:
The most expensive component on my board costs €20 x 10 = €200.
If I now enter the MPN CQ03SAJ010102T5E for the 1k Ohm resistor, then the whole reel will be ordered, which costs 5 euros instead of, for example, taking the CR0603-FX-1001ELF for 11 cents for 10 pieces.
If the displayed scale divides the range 0-200€ into 4 steps, it is not possible to see on the scale whether the resistor is being purchased for 5 euros (reel) or 11 cents (cut tape).
If I were to see the prices directly, I would immediately realise that €5 for a 1k resistor cannot be right.
If you want to keep to a scale, then such errors can only be recognised if the scale has an increment of 50 cents, for example - i.e. 400 scale lines in the example shown. This will not work.
So in my opinion, the only way to find such errors is to display the component prices.
I would like to comment that this is a critical issue with the BOM management tool.
I’m finalizing the BOM on a design that we prototyped last year with 3 units. Ordering the original design at 3 units saw the original price go up by a factor of 3. We know the assembly pricing model changed in January, but that was quite a surprise.
I kept searching which part was adding the cost. We have a 15 euro connector which is marked as “3 euros” in our BOM. But then we also have a 50ct MOSFET (placed 2 times on our board) that was marked as 4 euros. It didn’t highlight any information on HOW that part was adding this much cost. Presumably the system wanted to order a whole reel of 2.5K units? (815 euro at Mouser)
I now changed out that MOSFET for a slightly cheaper part (30ct vs 50ct at 100 pieces). At qty=3 the price even went 200 euros below what we paid last year! And basically all quantities between 5 and 500 are 1200 euros cheaper now too. Only at 1000 units its finding price parity (considering the part costs 20ct less).
For such small runs its always a trade-off between time spent optimizing vs the attainable savings. However, saving 1200 euros in 5minutes should not be a difficult or mysterious procedure! I want to have this information, because considering there are 90 BOM lines on this board, its non-trivial to spot these things.
The relevant part numbers are DMPH6050SK3Q-13 (old) and DMP6180SK3Q-13 (new).