Post-COVID: PCBA in Mexico instead of Asia

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My advice for mexico is stay away from the border towns due ... - May 11, 2020 by DWL

Hello I am working in a PCB assembly company, we are locate... - Jun 25, 2020 by DaisyMuV

Don't automatically rule out The US and Canada. Actually do ... - Jun 26, 2020 by Stephen

Greg

#84848

Post-COVID: PCBA in Mexico instead of Asia | 8 May, 2020

This is a similar question to https://smtnet.com/Forums/index.cfm?Thread_ID=22578 but I didn't want to steal their thread.

In the recent COVID-19 events, I guess that some US companies are going to think to relocate their PCBA work from Asia / China to something closer to USA. Mexico is obviously a strong candidate.

But that being said, there are very few links/threads about PCB-related services especially PCBA.

Is there any experience / advice about finding PCBA companies in Mexico? What's the quality of the work?

My experience is that China quality has always been a problem and Chinese human relation is catastrophic but at least all the Guangdong shops have now some good pick-and-place machines (Yamaha, Siemens) so you can manage to get a good finished product.

What's the status in Mexico? I think that the Mexico government should seize the current opportunity of what's happening in the world in 2020.

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DWL

#84855

Post-COVID: PCBA in Mexico instead of Asia | 11 May, 2020

My advice for mexico is stay away from the border towns due to cartel violence. Cities like Monterrey, Guadalajara or Queretero are much safer and have large established electronics manufacturing bases.

Most of the Major EMS providers have locations in Mexico and use top tier equipment. There's strong labor pool for operators and technicians, how ever turn over is high. People tend to change jobs often for a few more pesos or a better cafeteria.

The Mexican people are easy to work with. Most higher level engineers and managers speak English. They take pride in their work and want to do a good job, although sometimes they lack a sense of urgency. Always plan for needing more time then what your told. People also don't like to give you bad news, so when asking questions, its always best to dig a little deeper. Don't assume "everything is good" means everything is good.

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DaisyMuV

#85089

Post-COVID: PCBA in Mexico instead of Asia | 25 June, 2020

Hello

I am working in a PCB assembly company, we are located in Guanajuato, Mexico. We have an SMT line and assembly. We are Katolec de Guanajuato, you can see the information at https://www.katolec.com/ or you can send an email to marcelo-higa@katolec.com

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Stephen

#85095

Post-COVID: PCBA in Mexico instead of Asia | 26 June, 2020

Don't automatically rule out The US and Canada. Actually do the math of full cost of assembly analysis.

I'm in Toronto. Last December we did a big job for a California company that was having work done in China. I think they needed something done fast and well. We are about to start a bigger job for them.

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