Factory tour of JLCPCB

[tonyget]

JLCPCB factory looks pretty modern and highly automated

The Video is in Chinese language，you can use the auto-translation function for english subtitle

[mon2]

Here is an older video but one in English:

[thm_w]

Impressive
11:27 proves they do have a flying probe tester, but, not clear what boards actually get tested.

[liudr]

I watched that older video a while ago. What amazed me was not just those machines, but the machine brands were almost all Chinese brands. So if they use these brands for production, then there must be some quality in these brands.

The new video is nice. Finally learned these technical terms in Chinese.

[sleemanj]

The real ace in the hole for JLC is theIr shrewd focus on full life-cycle from EasyEDA through to "prototype" assembly service, pcb fab is a dime a dozen, but JLC & LCSC really worked to make the whole process fast and easy.  That's how you get people preferring to use your service, not just race to the bottom prices.

Last night I submitted another order,  designed in EasyEDA, submitted as a panel in a few clicks, when I woke up this morning the pcbs were already done and heading into assembly, and be on my doorstep in 5-10 days (covid permitting)

[eugene]

I watched that older video a while ago. What amazed me was not just those machines, but the machine brands were almost all Chinese brands. So if they use these brands for production, then there must be some quality in these brands.

The new video is nice. Finally learned these technical terms in Chinese.

If you go to contract engineering houses around the world and request a design, you'll unsurprisingly get different designs from different countries. Some will be precision works of art, some will have pleasing esthetics, some will be practical and utilitarian, some will be inexpensive to manufacture. But the difference has little to do with how smart the engineers are in different societies or what they are inherently capable of. It has more to do with what the culture considers respectable. The designers and manufacturers come up with something that they will be proud of, and that means different things in different cultures.

What I've learned using Chinese contract manufacturing is that the Chinese are comparatively unburdened by such biases in their jobs. It doesn't mean that individually they don't care, it just means that pride can be found in a broader spectrum of accomplishments. What they happen to be better at than anyone else is manufacturing at a cost that is absurdly lower than anyone else. So that's their bread and butter, and they are justifiably proud of it. But they can and will make parts with any balance of priorities you choose.

It's not surprising that if they need fast, reliable, highly automated production machinery in their own factories, then that's exactly what they create. They are not crippled intellectually or culturally. If anything, they have vastly more experience than the rest of the world with high speed automation. The fact that it cost so much less to manufacture cell phones in China is only partly due to labor costs (and changing fast.) The more important reason is that they build high speed, highly automated assembly lines that run reliably. If I wanted to put together an automated PCB fabrication facility like JLCPCB in the US, I probably would not go to China for buy manufacturing machinery, but I'm not surprised that they're able to build this equipment for their own use.

I can't think of anything nice to say about the government, but I have plenty of respect for the people.

[Mangozac]

That's very well said, Eugene. The fact is that the Chinese will build to the price you want to pay, so the quality and features will be adjusted to suit.

[mon2]

To the last 2 posts - very well versed. Could not agree with you more.

Reminded me of a dealings for a high volume project we had pending with HP / Foxconn for which I wanted to place an 0603 SMD LED. My fetish was to go with blue but the pricing varied a great deal in Asia as compared to the local distributors for the 'same' product.  I recall one manufacturer (Kingbright we met in Taiwan or HK - forget now) who required us to remain with Future Electronics due to contractual obligations if the project was moving forward. At the trade fair, asked some others and they surprised me with a request on 'which grade is acceptable for this project?'.

Specifically, if we are building LED signs, then binning  is a nice-to-have so the LEDs look consistent across the batch. For our signal only use, there are options for grade A, B and C. Each will work but they vary in the quality of the LED and respectively a $0.03 USD part will be $0.008 USD - each being BLUE. The volumes were 100k++ for this interest.

Have heard this same question often, the vendor will ask on the grade that is acceptable to meet the target price. Wow..