Building and Testing the Night Shift Production Line for Assembly
Author: Edison Yang
Note: Quality and manufacturing improvement have long been an essential task of EMS business. Nowadays the business model is manufacturing by orders, which leads the factories to shorten manufacturing time and to accept more project-type orders. To accommodate with this business trend, EMS factories start to adapt the night shift to fulfill a non-stop operation in the factories. Therefore, the PSI management has started to use night shift since Q4, 2013.
Goal: The advantage of implementing the night shift
  1. 24H non-stop operation- Achieve an extra output by 20%.
  2. Improve the usage of machinery tools: Reduce the obstacles made by facilities and tools.
  3. Better flexibility on the manufacturing: Accept more project orders and custom-made orders.
  4. Improve the usage of working stations.
  5. Get better competitiveness.
The Schedule progress:
  1. 1st step on Q4, 2013- Train / establish the first evening-shift on Testing line. Staffs (number): 5
  2. 2nd step on Q1, 2014- Transfer the first evening shift into night shift on Testing line. Staffs: 5
  3. 3rd step on Q2, 2014- Establish the night shift on Assembly line and Burn-In line. Staffs: 3
  4. 4th step on Q3, 2014- Increase operators on night shift. Staffs : 5->8
  5. Target number of night shift staffs on Q3, 2014:11
Quality Management:
  1. Since the QA labor force can’t be ready by the 1st step, the night shift quality management will be controlled by QA staffs in day shift.
  2. When the QA labor force is ready on the 2nd step, the night shift quality management will be controlled by on-site QA staffs.
  3. Ensure the product quality by timely operation training on night shift staffs.
prospect:
  1. 1st night shift Testing line is established. And it shall expand to other stations such as Burn-In and Assembly, to fit a flexible manufacturing process.
  2. An estimated extra output increased from 20% into 30%.