Manufacturing PCBs in France: it's absolutely possible

We know what we're talking about at Codium. Several electronic board productions now running in our workshop were reshored after years of manufacturing in Asia. Not out of ideology, not by chance: because it was technically feasible, and profitable once the right levers were pulled.

The phone call that started it all

A few years ago, in the middle of the post-Covid component shortage, a large group that had been manufacturing its boards in India for years gave us a call. The tone was anything but calm: their regular supplier had just quoted them 52 weeks lead time. With a delivery to fulfil in a few months.

52 weeks is the figure that component supplier ERPs display when they have no visibility whatsoever. A polite way of saying: we don't know when.

We retrieved the BOMs, schematics, and routing files. First observation: as-is, it was indeed complicated — the out-of-stock components were globally exhausted, and there was no reason we would be better served. But going through the BOM line by line, we quickly identified the culprits: a handful of problematic part numbers that required partially reworking the routing. Not a disaster. An opportunity, rather.

Challenge accepted.

The 8 levers that made it possible

This board had not been designed to be optimised. It had been designed to work, not to be produced efficiently. Going back into it with our combined design office and production expertise, we found margins everywhere:

1. Replacement of critical components — Equivalents in stock with better availability and standard lead times. Serious sourcing work, but achievable.
2. Drastic reduction in the number of part references — Consolidation of footprints and close values. Fewer different reels to load on the machine means less setup time, which means lower production cost. We can do this because we have the design office in-house.
3. Replacement of non-critical components with cheaper variants — Some references were not out of stock but were oversized. An optimisation pass on these components delivers additional savings without compromising the function.
4. Removal of all through-hole components — A 100% SMT assembly avoids a wave soldering pass or manual insertion. On medium volumes, this represents a significant saving in time and cost.
5. Switch to single-sided assembly — The board was double-sided even though the component count fitted perfectly on a single side given the available area and EMC/speed constraints. One fewer pass on the production line.
6. Reduction from 4 to 2 layers — The original board was routed in 4 layers. After analysis, everything worked perfectly well in 2 layers with careful routing. Result: −25% on the PCB price. You just need to know how to route — that's all.
7. Addition of test points — To make the board compatible with our automated test bench (bed of nails). We automate inspection during production, which reduces test time and improves quality coverage.
8. Panelisation — Multiple boards assembled simultaneously within the same panel. Direct gain on machine cycle time and on handling.

All of these levers combined were enough to hit the target price. In 2022, we won the production contract. We are still running it today.

What changed afterwards

This initial success opened the door to further reshoring projects for the same client. Each one required a similar optimisation pass — not always the same levers, but the same logic. And today, this client consults us directly for new productions, right from the design phase, conceived from the outset to be manufactured in France.

Benefits they cite regularly: fewer surprises, fewer quality issues, and above all significantly lower costs for managing remote teams. The fact that the design office and the production line are under the same roof saves them a considerable amount of back-and-forth, misunderstandings, and wasted lead time.

At Codium, it's in our DNA: we optimise, we automate. A well-automated production line has no reason to cost more than what comes out of Asia — especially when you factor in the true hidden costs (transport, safety stock, remote management, quality risk).

Do you have an electronic board manufactured in Asia and are wondering whether reshoring is feasible? Talk to us — we'll take a look at the BOM with no commitment.