East West Manufacturing Blog

If you’ve looked around websites for contract manufacturers (CM) or manufacturers in general, you might have seen the phrase “engineered products.” Maybe you’ve even thought, “What’s an engineered product?” After all, isn’t everything that’s made an engineered product of some type?

Last year I upgraded my phone. It’s a beautiful phone – sleek, champagne colored. I love the feel of it. Unfortunately, I rarely see what the phone actually looks like because after purchase I immediately encased it in a hard plastic, optic yellow case with a turquoise blue rubber overlay.

I did that because I know me. I will drop the phone and...

All contract manufacturers (CM) are not created equal. Some focus almost exclusively on production and the manufacturing support that goes with it. Others provide a holistic approach, offering everything from design services to engineering to shipping and logistics.

This begs the question: When you’re looking for a contract manufacturing, what’s...

To protect a printed circuit board (PCB) from the elements, including moisture, dust and extreme temperatures, conformal coatings are often applied. But there are several types to choose from, so how can you be certain you're making the right call? Below we'll cover the five main types of coating, as well as advantages and disadvantages of each.

Feeling uninspired, defeated, or just need a boost? Get your groove back with these 13 motivational quotes from some of the greatest players in manufacturing and design. Sometimes all we need is a little pick-me-up (and maybe some tough love) to hop back on that metaphorical horse. The main takeaway from the below insights is pretty simple, after...

You've completed your product design drawings, squared away your IP and are now prepared to submit an RFQ to a contract manufacturer. You may feel like the bulk of your work is done, but your contract manufacturer will likely have additional questions for you before the formal quoting process can get started.

You've probably been told that it's alright to make a mistake as long as you learn from it. This is something we preach here at East West. While mistakes do happen, some can be very costly and chip away at your bottom line (something our CFO likes to avoid). One such example is accumulating costs from rework, which is the correcting of a...