So Where's The Pick-and-Place Machinery?

Component placement machine in action Manufacturing is an essential part of Presco's business plan, yielding 70% of gross revenues in a typical year. We manufacture only circuit modules that we have developed for our clients. Presco is NOT an assembly house and, in fact, we have no pick-and-place machinery of our own. In-house, we handle every aspect of purchasing, inventory control, incoming inspection, kitting, test, rework, burn-in, quality control and final inspection. But the component placement and soldering process is handled by one of our subcontractors.
By outsourcing this one step in the manufacturing process, we avoid making large investments in capital equipment that must be kept busy all the time to justify its existence. This gives us the flexibility to do small production runs in a cost effective manner, yet we can boost production volume dramatically if needed, just by purchasing more time at our assembly house.


Why the Bellcore Standards are Important to You

Presco's manufacturing process yields a highly reliable circuit module. Reliability starts during the design process by paying strict attention to component ratings, power dissipation, grounding, and worst case timing. Another major quality factor is that our manufacturing process operates mainly according to the Bellcore technical guidelines. For those not familiar with Bellcore, it is the standards organization serving the (formerly) Bell Telephone network.
Click for Bellcore technical brief

In the early 1990s, Presco manufactured most of the voice recognition cards used by the U.S. switched telephone system for voice dialing services. The Bellcore technical documents control everything from solder formulation to circuit card flammability. The requirements are similar to the more familiar military standards such as MIL-883, but formulated to make more sense in an industrial environment. The result is a cost effective process which dramatically improves reliability.

What's So Important About Purchasing?

Purchasing is a key element in the manufacturing process, not just a necessary chore to be completed. Presco has custom written an interactive purchasing database program which significantly improves our ability to insure timely delivery of electronic components at competitive prices. Our $100,000 investment in purchasing software supports a broad database of suppliers and alternate component types, making it far easier to shift sources of supply when necessary to expedite delivery or obtain competitive pricing.

High Reliability Designs & Design-for-Test


Design-for-test is an important link between the design process and manufacturing. Since we manufacture only our own designs, we can insure that every circuit module has the necessary "hooks" to implement efficient production testing with good fault coverage. For most plug-in cards, these tests are based on software written by Presco for the customer's platform, often an IBM-PC. Where necessary, a dedicated test fixture is built, but we can often build enough feedback elements into the circuit module to permit good coverage without any special test fixtures.

These software based test functions can be made available to our clients for use at their facility during final assembly, and also to be used in the field to facilitate troubleshooting and field service. Hence, the design-for-test philosophy pays dividends throughout the life cycle of the circuit module.

Reliable design practices, a good manufacturing process, routine burn-in to reduce infant mortality defects, good final test coverage: all of these factors combine to improve circuit module reliability. These elements make it possible for Presco to offer a full coverage five year warranty on the modules we produce for our clients.