Everyone wants to move their electronics supply chain to Vietnam. But as an engineer, I need to warn you about the “Supply Chain Gap.”
Vietnam is amazing at Assembly (SMT, Box Build). We are terrible at Components (Resistors, Capacitors, Bare PCBs).
1. The “China Plus One” Reality If you build a circuit board in Shenzhen, the factory can buy the capacitors from a shop down the street. If you build that same board in Hanoi, we usually have to import those capacitors from Shenzhen.
2. What Vietnam Can Do (The Good)
- SMT (Surface Mount Technology): The industrial parks in Bac Ninh (VSIP) have world-class Japanese SMT lines. We assemble for Samsung and Canon. The quality is tier-1.
- Firmware Flashing: Hanoi engineers are excellent at embedded systems testing and flashing.
3. What Vietnam Can’t Do (The Bad)
- Bare Board Fabrication: There are very few factories making the actual green FR4 PCB boards here. Most are imported.
- Plastic Injection Molds: We can do it, but the steel for the high-end molds is often imported.
4. The “Consigned Material” Strategy The best way to manufacture electronics here is the “Hybrid Model”:
- Step 1: Buy your complex chips (STM32, ESP32) and passive components in China/Global.
- Step 2: Ship them as a “Kit” to the Vietnamese factory.
- Step 3: The Vietnamese factory does the SMT assembly, testing, and final box build.
- Why: This lowers your tariff exposure (the final product is “Made in Vietnam”) while keeping component costs low.
Conclusion: Don’t ask a Vietnamese factory to “source everything.” You will pay a premium. Source the chips yourself, and let Vietnam handle the labor-intensive assembly.
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