Lightwell Case Study
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Established in 1992, Advanced Integrated Circuitry, Inc. has its working processes based in Taichung; Taiwan. They are renowned as ODM (Original Design Manufacturer) in the industry and deals in PCB, Motherboards and Graphics cards for Personal Computers. It has protected its position as a low cost supplier without compromising on quality. By doing in-house design and development, the company has been able to foster exclusive, long-term relationships with its customers. There is keen interest in innovation and designing of new generation components. AIC systems embarked on a new strategy to diversify its product portfolio so as to include consumer electronics with a particular focus on mobile technology due to a growing global market for ultraportable laptops. For this purpose the production manager created an assembly line to produce a new product QuiN Netbook. By seeing a sudden increase in demand of the product, raises a situation to produce more units of Netbook that can reduce the cost and that can improve its time taken for producing the single Netbooks.
PROBLEM DEFINATION
The netbook market is proving to be a tough competition and QuiN Netbook is building momentum to be a key player in the market.
Their current concerns are: * Produce more units meeting the current demand of the month i.e. 1,30,000 units * Increase the gross margin * Keep the Cost of the Product same as before * Decide whether the number of labors have to be increased or not since the labor costs were rising * The shift time cannot be increased to 10 to 12 hours * It is not feasible to hire and train workers and supervisors required for a permanent third shift to meet spikes in demand
So the current problem of the QuiN Netbook assembly line is to improve its efficiency keeping in mind the above concerns and decide whether to invest in new line or not.
ANALYSIS
IMPROVING THE EXISTING ASSEMBLY LINE
Merits:-
* Will increase
Established in 1992, Advanced Integrated Circuitry, Inc. has its working processes based in Taichung; Taiwan. They are renowned as ODM (Original Design Manufacturer) in the industry and deals in PCB, Motherboards and Graphics cards for Personal Computers. It has protected its position as a low cost supplier without compromising on quality. By doing in-house design and development, the company has been able to foster exclusive, long-term relationships with its customers. There is keen interest in innovation and designing of new generation components. AIC systems embarked on a new strategy to diversify its product portfolio so as to include consumer electronics with a particular focus on mobile technology due to a growing global market for ultraportable laptops. For this purpose the production manager created an assembly line to produce a new product QuiN Netbook. By seeing a sudden increase in demand of the product, raises a situation to produce more units of Netbook that can reduce the cost and that can improve its time taken for producing the single Netbooks.
PROBLEM DEFINATION
The netbook market is proving to be a tough competition and QuiN Netbook is building momentum to be a key player in the market.
Their current concerns are: * Produce more units meeting the current demand of the month i.e. 1,30,000 units * Increase the gross margin * Keep the Cost of the Product same as before * Decide whether the number of labors have to be increased or not since the labor costs were rising * The shift time cannot be increased to 10 to 12 hours * It is not feasible to hire and train workers and supervisors required for a permanent third shift to meet spikes in demand
So the current problem of the QuiN Netbook assembly line is to improve its efficiency keeping in mind the above concerns and decide whether to invest in new line or not.
ANALYSIS
IMPROVING THE EXISTING ASSEMBLY LINE
Merits:-
* Will increase