Should you buy a pick and place machine? Let's take a look at the various PCB assembly options to find out.
Overseas Assembly
Chinese assembly can be fast if they have the parts in stock. If they have to order from a distributor, tack on an extra week at least.
Another problem is cost. A chip that costs 8 cents to buy can cost 40 cents for them to assemble, a 5x markup that also inflates your import tariffs. If you're building 100 boards, that's real money. Here's a real example, pulled from LCSC:
Finally, counterfeit parts are always a risk when working with unknown suppliers overseas.
Local Assembly
Local shops are great for quality, but setup fees can be high for low volume prototypes. Most shops will charge $1,000 just to load the feeders, because they only make money with volume. This adds up fast if you're prototyping often.
DIY: Buying Your Own Machine
The last option is having a pick-and-place machine in the lab. In my case, I purchased a used Charmhigh T530P for $2,500 CAD (plus another $1,500 or so on Yamaha feeders), which was a great deal. It paid for itself in less than a few months compared to local assembly costs.
The Charmhigh T530P is a two-head pneumatic machine with vision, and uses pneumatic feeders to advance the parts. This makes the feeders much less expensive when compared to their electronic counterparts, but they require a bit of tuning since they have more moving parts. Another downside is the setup time is now your responsibility. For small runs, the setup often takes longer than the actual assembly.
A Yamaha pneumatic feeder
To actually produce a board, you also need to invest in and find space for a stencil machine, reflow oven, a high-quality optical microscope, and a solder station.
Is It Worth It?
If you build a lot of small-batch prototypes with non-standard parts and need a quick turnaround, I think so. Then at some point you can transition to local assembly.