Why the Electronics Industry Struggles with Quality and Reliability
The electronics sector faces persistent challenges in achieving consistent quality and reliability. Here's what's going wrong—and how to fix it.
The Outsourcing Tradeoff
Outsourcing has become standard practice. Companies that once maintained vertical integration have handed off manufacturing to third parties to reduce equipment and labor costs, relying on suppliers to manage quality control.
This approach isn't inherently flawed, but it carries risks. When oversight lapses, quality standards drift toward the bare minimum. A small process deviation can then cascade into recalls, lawsuits, class actions, or customer injuries.
The core problem: companies using outsourcing models often lack the internal expertise to challenge suppliers or establish appropriate acceptance criteria. Some defer entirely to suppliers on quality decisions. While standards like IPC provide useful frameworks, they're reference documents—not substitutes for rigorous, application-specific acceptance criteria agreed upon by OEMs and suppliers.
The "Rainy Day" Mentality
Many companies budget for quality failures as a cost of doing business. As long as products sell and the cost of non-quality stays within budget, suppliers continue operating at the same level year after year.
This works until it doesn't. When revenue dips, those reserves evaporate. Suddenly, lines go down, shipments stall, complaints pile up, and regulatory warnings arrive from the FDA, TÜV, or other bodies. Problems that should have been addressed at the source become exponentially harder to fix. Worse, companies often resort to treating symptoms rather than root causes, creating recurring obstacles.
The Expertise Gap
Outsourcing models have hollowed out internal technical capabilities. Companies expect suppliers to provide subject matter expertise along with manufacturing services, eliminating the perceived need for in-house specialists.
The result: suppliers, facing no informed pushback, cut corners to reduce their own costs. Meanwhile, companies that once employed teams of quality professionals now rely on one or two engineers for emergency support—nowhere near enough to ensure suppliers are meeting expectations.
A Better Path Forward
At Symphonic Quality, we bring over 80 years of combined experience in electronics manufacturing. We help companies see through symptoms to identify root causes, then implement actionable plans to resolve problems for good.
We work directly with suppliers to establish clear minimum acceptance criteria and help them build the capabilities to support their customers properly. We transform KPIs from routine metrics into diagnostic tools that reveal why certain products fail frequently while others underperform.
Every problem is unique. We provide dedicated attention to each project and develop tailored solutions for every challenge we take on.