Services / Sourcing in Taiwan and China

Sourcing run by engineers who read the drawing.

You already have CAD and a BOM. From there Ideambox writes the RFQ package, puts it in front of factories in Taiwan and China, audits the ones worth visiting, runs the sample rounds, and normalises the quotes into one comparable shape before anyone commits tooling money.

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Supplier RFQ review with drawings and quoted part on the table

The RFQ package, not a zipped CAD file

STEP at a locked revision, PDF drawings whose title block matches it, tolerances flagged per ISO 8015, the BOM with manufacturer part numbers, and the finish written down properly — plastic grade, Pantone plus a physical chip, SPI or VDI texture codes. Then the order intent: year-one and year-two volume, first-order quantity, re-order batch, required dates. Then the quality intent: inspection points, AQL at 0% critical, 2.5% major, 4.0% minor, lot and date-code traceability, and a photographed defect catalogue. Every supplier receives the same document at the same revision. The tooling brief that travels with it is covered on prototyping and manufacturing.

Quotes normalised before anyone compares them

One supplier included packaging, the next excluded inspection, the third quoted a looser tolerance than the drawing asks for. The excluded line goes back onto whoever missed it, then everything is restated at the same volume: per-piece price, tooling amortised over annual volume, freight, duties, inspection, and a 1–3% defect allowance. Total landed cost per unit is what gets compared, and it is scored — price 30%, tooling amortised 15%, lead time 15%, quality and certifications 15%, communication 10%, risk profile 10%, compliance maturity 5%.

The person running the RFQ can read the drawing

A factory asks to open a tolerance the drawing flagged as critical, move a gate onto a cosmetic A-surface, or substitute a connector for a domestic equivalent. Those three questions arrive in the first week of every RFQ. A sourcing desk that cannot read the stack-up has to forward each one and wait, and the design drifts one accepted suggestion at a time. Here the answer comes back in the same thread from the engineer who set the requirement, with the reason attached.

Production partners, not a directory hit

Ideambox executes production through partners we have worked with for over 15 years, in injection moulding and PCB manufacturing among others. A relationship that long changes the order of events: DFM feedback arrives with the quote rather than at first shots, and the awkward question about spare capacity gets a real answer. When a part does not fit any of them, we run the sourcing round from scratch and audit what comes out of it.

Electronics manufacturing

PCBA sourcing is a separate round with its own package.

A mechanical RFQ and a PCBA RFQ share a cover letter and almost nothing else. The board needs its own document set, its own vendor list, and its own capability check, and it is usually where the schedule quietly goes. Ideambox works with an electronics engineering partner under a standing agreement, so the board questions are answered by people who have laid out boards, not relayed to someone who has.

What goes in the PCBA package

Gerbers verified in a CAM viewer, a drill file that matches the design, the pick-and-place file with X, Y and rotation per component, the SMT stencil file, an assembly drawing carrying PCB dimensions and the critical mechanical features, panelisation detail down to V-score lines, tabs and mouse-bites, a test-point report for ICT, the BOM in the assembler's format, and the firmware build as .hex or .bin with an MD5.

Vendor list before quote

Each line carries a lifecycle flag — NPI, Active, NRND, LTB, EoL, Obsolete — and a qualified second source wherever one exists. Authorised distributors only, with a certificate of conformance carrying date code, lot and FAB ID. A component quoted 30% under market is the first counterfeit signal, not a saving.

Assembly capability, checked

AOI coverage, X-ray on every BGA, the ICT or functional fixture the test-point report was written for, and who pays when a pad lifts during rework. The PCBA defect set is short and specific — tombstoning, solder bridges, cold joints, missing components, wrong polarity, voids under a BGA — and the supplier has to name the detection method for each one.

The enclosure and the board quote together

Board outline, connector positions, antenna keepout, test-point access and screw bosses are one negotiation, not two. Quoting the enclosure and the PCBA in isolation is how a project ends up paying for a tooling iteration after T1 to make room for a connector nobody re-checked.

Second sourcing on the critical lines

MCUs, wireless modules, displays, batteries and premium connectors are roughly 10% of BOM lines and 70% of BOM cost. Those get a second source qualified before the first production order, not after an allocation notice arrives. Custom silicon, cells and colour-matched cosmetic parts are the ones that resist it.

Test coverage written into the quote

What the line tests, how long it takes, and what it costs per unit belong in the RFQ. A manufacturing test mode that runs in under 30 seconds is a different quote from one that takes five minutes per board, and the difference only shows up once volume starts.

Package

CAD, drawings, BOM, finish spec, order intent and quality intent assembled into one document at one locked revision.

Longlist

30–70 candidates per category, from directories, fairs, and the partners we already work with for the process in question.

Filter

Years trading, registered capital, headcount, ISO 9001, and photographs of the line and the QC bench rather than the showroom. 8–15 survive.

Verify

Business licence on the public registry, customs export rights, court record, and every certificate checked against the lab that issued it.

Audit

On site, on the line that would build your part. Three-month production schedule, loaded versus spare capacity, and the failure modes they have already seen on similar work.

Samples

Engineering sample, pre-production sample in real materials, then off-tool parts — each round measured against the spec and logged.

Selection

Scoring matrix and total landed cost narrow it to one or two, then a small paid trial run before any tooling commitment.

Second source

Qualified for anything that stops production, exceeds twelve weeks lead time, or carries more than 10% of BOM cost — before it is needed.

Factory audit

A shortlist is what survives verification.

Finding suppliers takes an afternoon. Verifying them is the work, and it is where the budget should sit. A claimed capacity is not a capacity for your product type, and a factory with every line booked is also a factory that will deprioritise a first order.

Business licence and export rights on the public registry
Registered capital, headcount, years trading
ISO 9001 and 14001 dates checked with the issuing body
The line that would build your part, not the sample room
Three-month schedule and spare capacity for your window
Similar production cases, and what went wrong on them

Supplier assembly line review during a factory audit

Sample rounds

Samples are judged against the spec, not against the last sample.

Drift is invisible when each round is compared to the one before it. Every defect gets a number, a photograph at 1:1 with a ruler, a measurement, and a class. The supplier proposes the fix, because they know their process — commands get accepted and then quietly worked around.

Approval triggers production, so nothing is approved under time pressure. The round ends with a golden sample signed and dated by both parties, one copy in your office and one on the production floor. Everything after that is settled by inspecting that part rather than by argument.

Sample stages, and what each one proves

ES — engineering sample — process feasibility and basic fit. 2–3 weeks.
PPS — pre-production sample — real materials, full process. 4–6 weeks.
OTS / T1 — first parts off production tooling. 1–2 weeks after the tool.
T2 / T3 — tooling refinement. 1–2 weeks per iteration.
GS — golden sample — signed by both parties, kept by both.
PPR — pilot run — 100–500 units on the production line.

Taiwan and China

Taiwan or China is decided per part, not per project.

Taiwan is the stronger base for PCBA, precision machining, machine tools and plastics in engineering polymers, and it carries no Section 301 duty into the United States. Mainland China holds the deeper supply base for commodity plastics and consumer electronics, and it iterates faster — quotes come back in two to five days rather than five to ten. Most BOMs end up split across both, which is a sourcing decision, not a loyalty one.

Ideambox is based in Taipei and works regularly with a Taiwan sourcing partner, so the audit, the sample chase and the uncomfortable phone call happen in the factory's time zone and in the factory's language.

What actually changes between the two

Quote response — 2–5 days mainland China, 5–10 days Taiwan.
First production — 30–45 days mainland China, 35–60 days Taiwan.
Typical MOQ per SKU — 500–2,000 mainland China; 100–1,000 Taiwan for electronics, higher for plastics.
Production iteration — 4–6 weeks mainland China, 5–7 weeks Taiwan.
4-layer, 50-component PCBA — $3–7 mainland China, $4–8 Taiwan.
Section 301 duty into the US — 7.5–25% on Lists 1–4 from mainland China, 0% from Taiwan.

Selection and second sourcing

The terms that decide the disputes are priced in the RFQ.

A clause negotiated after the deposit is a clause you pay for twice. These go into the package that suppliers quote against, so the price that comes back already includes them.

Tooling and IP ownership

Drawings, firmware, brand assets and tooling remain the buyer's property regardless of where the tool physically sits, with delivery or documented destruction on termination. It is the most-disputed line in supplier contracts and the cheapest one to settle before quoting.

Golden sample as the reference

Production must match the signed golden sample, and the supplier keeps their copy on the production floor. Written into the RFQ, the sample stages stop being a courtesy and become a schedule with acceptance criteria.

Inspection before the balance

70% of the price rides on a pre-shipment inspection at the AQL named in the RFQ, sampled per ISO 2859-1 Level II. The inspection report — defect rate, photographs, measurements, pass, hold or fail — is written for the buyer, not for the factory.

Capability evidence required of the supplier

Critical dimensions carry a measured capability requirement written into the RFQ and demonstrated by the supplier on first articles, before pilot becomes production. The evidence is theirs to produce and ours to read.

Qualifying the second source

Datasheet deltas documented, drop-in versus equivalent decided honestly — an equivalent means a hardware variant, not a swap — then 10–100 samples verified in the actual product, a 100–500 unit production trial to surface the yield difference, and the approved vendor list updated with any conditions.

Late delivery and defect rate

A per-day late-delivery penalty of 0.3% of order value, capped at 10%, and a defect threshold of no more than 1% major on the pre-shipment sample, with re-inspection and rework at the supplier's cost above it. Numbers, so there is nothing to interpret.

The engineering behind the service.

IDB-RFQ-007

Supplier RFQ checklist

RFQ package contents, qualification questions, tooling cost benchmarks, the scoring matrix and the total landed cost formula. Includes XLSX comparison template.

PDF + XLSX → IDB-IMP-008

Importing from Asia

Five-stage reference: specification package, supplier verification, sample stages, agreement and QA, then shipping and customs.

PDF reference → IDB-SBC-011

Sourcing beyond China

Taiwan, Vietnam, India and Thailand — category strengths, lead times, MOQs, cost benchmarks, Section 301 impact, discovery channels.

PDF reference → IDB-BOM-005

BOM & component sourcing

The 17 columns a production BOM carries, component lifecycle, second-source qualification, MOQ economics, counterfeit signals. Includes XLSX template.

PDF + XLSX → IDB-QCI-004

Quality control & inspection

The four inspection points, AQL sampling per ISO 2859-1, defect classification, and the process-specific defect catalogues for moulding and PCBA.

PDF reference → IDB-RMP-021

Production ramp-up

Pilot-to-MP gate criteria, yield ramp targets, operator training, and capacity planning for the first 8–12 weeks after selection.

PDF reference →

How an engagement is scoped

There is no standard package and no rate card, because the shape of the work changes with the product. What is released, how many suppliers a build needs, whether tooling exists, the first production quantity and the date it has to hit all move the scope, and they move it a long way. Scope and commercial terms are agreed per project, in writing, before anything starts.

Send the drawing package, the BOM if there is one, the quantity and the date. That is enough to come back with what the work involves.

Have CAD, a BOM, and no supplier yet?

Send the drawings and the BOM. We will tell you what the RFQ package is still missing before it goes out to anyone.

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