introduction
In the design of electronic systems, the selection of a power supply solution is crucial. A reliable and high-performance power supply solution is essential for the safe operation of the entire electronic system. Many electronic system design engineers, for cost reasons, will build their own power supply solution; while for reliability reasons, many will choose to purchase a mature power supply solution. So, which choice is the optimal solution for both the electronic system and the design engineer?
I. Power Supply Solution Cost Analysis
In electronic system development, many design engineers choose to build their own power supply solutions, primarily to save costs and out of confidence in their power supply technology. While many believe that power supply system costs mainly consist of procurement costs, it's true that purchasing a finished power supply only incurs procurement costs. However, building your own power supply solution involves not only raw material procurement costs but also power supply design costs, manufacturing costs, management costs, and quality maintenance costs.
1. Raw material costs: In reality, raw material costs account for a small proportion of the total cost of the power supply system. Therefore, although choosing to build your own power supply solution may seem to save on procurement costs, non-professional power supply companies do not have the advantage of volume in raw material procurement channels, resulting in limited room for cost reduction from the perspective of the entire product line.
2. Design and Time Costs: Design costs account for the largest proportion of product development costs, and even rank second in the overall product lifecycle cost. Choosing to build your own power supply solution actually increases the overall system design cost to some extent, because system engineers need to spend more time on material selection, topology optimization, solution design, debugging, and verification. Power supply design is an integration and optimization process. If a problem occurs in any part of this process, coupled with the system engineers' lack of experience in power supply design, it may lead to a prolonged product development cycle, thus missing the optimal product launch time.
3. Production and Management Costs: With rising labor costs, automated production has become the best option for enterprises to reduce labor and management costs. Compared to specialized power supply companies that can achieve automated mass production, system manufacturers lack the scale advantage and find it difficult to implement automated production. Even with a certain volume, to achieve automated production of their self-built power supplies, they must build an independent power supply production platform on top of existing system equipment, increasing the number of production and management personnel. This significantly increases the production cost of power supplies. Furthermore, the procurement of raw materials, R&D design, production, and warehousing of power supplies also bring considerable management cost pressure in terms of personnel management, equipment management, loss and inventory management.
4. Quality Costs: Quality costs constitute the largest portion of product lifecycle costs. However, because their impact only becomes apparent after a period of continuous production and sales, they are often the most easily overlooked costs. How are quality costs assessed? Assume that in a certain industry, the purchase price of a certain model of power supply product manufactured by Company A is 12 yuan, with a product defect rate of 0.01% (i.e., 100 PPM , an excellent industry level). The cost of a power supply product with the same specifications and self-built circuitry is 8 yuan (more than 30% cheaper ), with a product defect rate of 0.1% (i.e., 1000 PPM , already good, higher than the industry average). Assume that the explicit cost of handling customer complaints caused by quality issues with the power supply solution is 5000 yuan per complaint (hidden costs are even higher, such as brand value loss or customer churn), and the demand is 10000 PCS . Then the total cost is calculated as follows:
Total cost of purchased power supply = Product cost + Quality cost = 12 * 10000 + 10000 * 0.01% * 5000 = 125000 yuan
Total cost of homemade power supply = Product cost + Quality cost = 8 * 10000 + 10000 * 0.1% * 5000 = 130000 yuan
From the examples above, assuming the system manufacturer chooses to build their own power supply solution, although the material procurement cost of the power supply product is lower, the reliability of a self-built power supply solution is unlikely to reach the level of a purchased professional power supply due to factors such as testing and verification, specialized equipment, automated manufacturing processes, and overall design experience. This ultimately leads to higher quality costs, making the overall cost higher than purchasing a power supply. Conversely, with purchased power supplies, since a procurement solution is chosen, the manufacturer does not bear all the quality risks, transferring them to the power supply manufacturer. Therefore, from a quality and cost perspective, purchasing a mature power supply solution is far superior to building one independently. Of course, if a poor-quality purchased power supply is used, it's better to build one yourself. But that's a digression, so I won't discuss it further.
In conclusion, non-professional power supply manufacturers who choose to build their own power supply solutions will not be able to reduce overall costs due to the imperfections of their power supply platforms. Instead, purchasing high-quality, highly reliable power supply products from a professional power supply company can not only minimize overall costs and save time, but also help improve system reliability.
II. Risk Assessment of Self-Powered Supply Solution
Building your own power supply solution not only fails to effectively reduce overall costs, but also introduces various risks to the system.
1. Quality Risk: Even if a design engineer has a high level of power supply design skills, the quality of a self-built power supply cannot be effectively guaranteed due to the lack of a complete power supply design and manufacturing platform. At the same time, system manufacturers generally focus more on the performance of the entire electronic system and often lack independent, comprehensive, complete, and extreme condition testing for the power supply section of the subsystem. The power supply solution is not fully verified, and it is impossible to comprehensively assess the application risk of the power supply solution in the system terminal. Quality problems may not be discovered until actual application, which is equivalent to laying hidden dangers for the quality of subsequent systems.
2. Impact on Brand Reputation: Since the quality risks of self-built power solutions cannot be fully assessed and no risk transfer measures are taken, once quality problems occur and customer complaints or grievances arise, it will greatly affect the reputation that a brand has worked hard to maintain over the long term, and may even lead to customer loss.
III. Advantages of Purchasing Mature Power Solutions
Excellent power supply manufacturers must possess well-established material procurement platforms, R&D design platforms, and production management platforms. These capabilities ensure the highest possible reliability and optimal cost-effectiveness of their power supplies, providing a significant advantage for the products themselves.
1. A robust platform ensures product quality.
In reality, power supply products, whether self-built or purchased, generally function normally in a laboratory. However, harsh environments (real-world application environments) are the true test of a product's performance and reliability. Ensuring product reliability under all conditions requires power supply companies to possess strong technological R&D capabilities, high-quality raw materials, advanced and comprehensive equipment, sophisticated craftsmanship, strict process control, and years of accumulated experience. This is a massively complex undertaking requiring a robust platform for support, areas where most companies fall short.
2. A comprehensive testing system ensures power supply reliability.
Every electronic product must undergo a series of performance tests before leaving the factory to ensure its reliability. Excellent power supply companies conduct thorough reliability testing on each power supply product individually, including component steady-state and transient stress testing, environmental reliability testing (application testing under extreme environmental conditions), EMC testing, and long-term aging testing. Only products that withstand such rigorous testing are good products. Only through comprehensive testing under extreme conditions can potential risks be identified early, maximizing the power supply's reliability and truly nipping any potential problems in the bud. Only such power supplies can be considered good power supplies.
3. Improved services reduce maintenance costs.
Excellent power supply companies not only provide highly reliable and cost-effective power supply products, but also offer comprehensive pre-sales, sales, and after-sales services. They can provide effective support in areas such as initial solution selection, system design obstacle resolution, performance optimization, and after-sales quality assurance. This not only solves the technical problems that customers may encounter at each stage, but also helps them share some of the application risks.
4. Mature solutions reduce trial-and-error costs.
Mature power supply solutions, or standard power supply products, are designed for various industry applications. From the initial design stage, potential application problems in various environments are considered, and the solutions are continuously adjusted to avoid these issues. Furthermore, products undergo extensive experimental testing and verification before being released to the market, and after release, they are tested against customer application systems across various industries … These processes largely ensure the power supply's versatility and ease of use, significantly reducing the cost of trial and error. In contrast, a self-made power supply is used only by yourself; it's impossible to verify its performance in every environment. You can't fight against everyone, and only you can truly know its quality.
In today's society, the division of labor is becoming increasingly clear, and everyone has their own expertise. Focusing on one's own professional strengths is the best way to maximize one's potential. By delegating the parts that one is not good at to professionals, and by making the best use of resources and ensuring that everyone fulfills their responsibilities, a company can improve its competitiveness.
IV. Summary
When choosing a power supply solution, considering factors such as cost, performance, reliability, and risk, selecting a professional modular power supply provides better system protection and offers higher cost-effectiveness. Excellent power supply companies not only offer optimal power solutions but also provide superior services in product experience, quality assurance, and technical support, minimizing risks associated with power supply design. Mornsun, as a leading power supply design expert, continuously innovates, establishing comprehensive R&D, material, production, reliability, and after-sales support platforms to provide highly reliable power module solutions for electronic systems, holding a leading position in the power module industry. High-quality, low-defect power supply products effectively reduce customers' quality costs, providing strong support for their product competitiveness and brand influence.
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