How MacroFab's 2023 Platform Updates Improve Your Order Experience

At MacroFab, we’re constantly seeking better solutions for our customers. Our goal is to make your experience more than good - we want it to be outstanding. Since our technology platform is where most orders begin, we worked hard to improve the ordering process in 2023. This blog post highlights some of these key changes, including design file improvements, part placement updates, and more, and how they impact your experience.

Uploading your design files to MacroFab’s platform helps us get your order right and gives you a visual confirmation that your manufacturing files communicate your design well. In 2023 we made our file upload even better by improving the speed of our preview generation, automatically identifying more layer files, and adding support for KiCad 7. If you are a KiCad user you may appreciate some bug fixes we found and helped fix to make KiCad more reliable when generating manufacturing packages.

At MacroFab we try not to turn away good suggestions. When someone suggested getting photo updates of their boards, we listened and made that part of our well-reviewed order progress. Once the boards leave the production line, photos are sent via email and attached to your order, so you can see a live preview of your order before it ships.

MacroFab updated the placement screen in early 2023 to remove the unhelpful action of having to approve your placements before ordering and to give you a tool to find specific placements. These improvements make it easier to order and help you and our engineering review team use the placement screen to effectively identify and resolve any placement issues.

We want to give our customers as many part sourcing options as possible, including sourcing parts themselves. In 2023 we launched customer-furnished-material (CFM), an improvement on our previous inventory and consignment offerings.

CFM lets you address sourcing issues at the time of order to put you in the best place to address part availability issues. With inventory information on the BOM, flexibility between consignment and inventory, and the ability to save sourcing configurations, you have the best tools to ensure your order has the parts it needs each time.

MacroFab uses intelligent overage logic to deliver competitive pricing while ensuring orders have enough materials to deliver on time. We improved this logic in 2023 based on feedback from our customers to better handle high-cost parts and save you money.

MacroFab launched first-class support for products regulated by International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) in 2023. We have been told our ITAR security measures and customer experience are already some of the best in the business.

How do we make it easy and secure?

When you check the ITAR box on your PCB we pass that ITAR flag on to all of the parts of the manufacturing process.

When we go to purchase parts, place components, inspect your boards, and ship your final product we use that flag to make sure everyone knows your PCB is ITAR controlled.

While other manufacturers rely heavily on printed documents and email, MacroFab uses our own platform to complete your order. We are able to easily control who sees your designs and prevent ITAR data from falling into the wrong hands.

MacroFab added a PCB file viewer in 2023 to give you a place to view your uploaded PCB files and upload additional files like instructions or notes. The files view helps us keep your design information all in one place and will be a critical feature in the future as we expand the services we can offer.

MacroFab is committed to providing customers with the best possible experience. Enhancements made to the platform in 2023 are just part of our ongoing process to redefine electronics manufacturing as we know it today.