I'm in the middle of designing a circuit with hopes of going to mass production (> 5000 units). I'm trying to think ahead in my part selection a little bit for reliability and cost effectiveness. My only metric is the cost on Digikey (or like distributors) and how much they cost when a reel is purchased.
If I have multiple PCBs (4x) in different locations in the product that need to be connected, are connectors still cost effective? There will be the connectors on the boards and wire harnesses would need to be made with the mating connectors. From an assembly standpoint, connectors make sense but of course increase the BOM cost. The other option would be to just have pads on the PCB and solder wires to connect from PCB to PCB. I would think the latter would be cheaper but a PITA for assembly.
Does anyone have any experience with this?