I. Abnormality Notification Stage

Once defects are found by the customer, please provide information immediately: photos/videos of defects, defective quantity, batch number, board number and defect description.

Both parties shall retain defective samples. Disposal or discarding of all products by one party alone is prohibited; physical samples must be preserved.

Internal temporary action: suspend shipment of finished products from the same batch, isolate and mark inventory to avoid further circulation.

II. Preliminary Assessment (Response within 24 hours)

Arrange reproduction tests: re-run FCT, visual inspection and electrical test to confirm whether the defect is batch failure or sporadic failure.

Abnormality Classification:

✅ Incoming material issues

✅ Bare PCB manufacturing process issues

✅ SMT assembly / soldering issues

✅ Customer’s drawing data, design or application environment issues

III. Corrective Actions

(Solutions must be confirmed by both parties before rework to avoid secondary defects)

100% Sorting: Conduct full inspection via manual check / AOI / BGA X-Ray screening to separate defective goods; qualified products can be delivered normally.

Urgent Rework: Products eligible for rework shall be repaired uniformly (e.g. re-soldering, cleaning, re-marking).

Urgent Remanufacturing: If rework is impossible or sorting workload is excessive, new prototypes / mass production will be arranged for replacement.

Temporary Goods Replacement: Priority delivery of qualified batches; defective goods shall be returned to the supplier for analysis.

IV. Root Cause Analysis & Long-term Improvement

PCB issues: Optimize circuit process, drilling, surface finish, solder mask procedure and inspection standards.

PCBA issues: Adjust stencil design, reflow temperature profile, material control, expand FCT test items.

Material issues: Replace component suppliers and strengthen IQC incoming inspection.

Complete small-batch trial production verification after improvement to confirm the defect will not recur.

V. Prevention Mechanism

Update inspection specifications, expand FCT test items, and add current defects to mandatory inspection list.

Provide training on defect cases for production and QC staff.

Strictly verify the first articles of subsequent orders; conduct small-batch trial run before mass production.

VI. Disposition Options

Free Rework: Defective products to be returned; supplier provides free repair and bears round-trip freight (if liability belongs to the supplier).

Free Remanufacturing: Defective boards to be scrapped; supplier produces new boards free of charge.

Discounted Acceptance: Minor cosmetic defects without functional impact may be accepted at a negotiated discount (Customer Concession / UAI, formal concession agreement required).

Customer-liable Scenarios: For defects caused by incorrect data, design flaws or customer-supplied materials, all rework / remanufacturing costs shall be borne by the customer.