| dc.description.abstract | The main focus of this research is on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Taiwan with a range of different industrial characteristics, in order to investigate whether a uniform approach can be applied with respect to management and the application of lean production to meet the goals of growth and profitability, in the context of different types of demand such as low-mix/high-volume, high-mix/high-volume, medium-mix and low-volume/high-mix products.
This study focuses on the case analysis of Global Tek Fabrication Co., Ltd.(Global Tek), which primarily produces low-mix/high- volume automotive safety and transmission parts, high-mix/high-volume semiconductor parts and bicycle parts, medium-mix industrial instruments and transmitter parts, and low-volume/high-mix aerospace parts. Global Tek has implemented lean production since 2006 and developed its own system, which has been successfully applied in all the above industries with positive results.
Global Tek has been in business for 23 years and has achieved significant growth and profitability in the automotive, semiconductor, industrial instrument, and bicycle markets. However, the aerospace industry has been the exception, as the company has been unable to effectively improve capacity utilization, and the efficacy of production line personnel has always been lower than that of other markets. In the other industries, specialized production lines or automated machines can be established due to the high demand, which can improve capacity utilization and reduce the number of production personnel, thereby enhancing personnel input. However, the low-volume/high-mix demand of the aerospace market makes it difficult to invest in dedicated automated production lines. Personnel in the aerospace industry require more specialized skills, and cannot be assigned fixed positions like those in high-volume demand production lines. Therefore, the annual bonus for aerospace production line personnel has always been lower than that of other production lines.
This study follows the principles of lean production and examines the method of incorporating low-volume/high-mix aerospace products into part families. Value stream analysis was used to consolidate related processes in order to increase capacity utilization, production line load balancing used instead of line balancing, and a push-pull production method was implemented. The production line was then divided into several Flexible Manufacturing Cells, which were connected and modularized. Finally, the relevant information was input and monitored with the use of computer-integrated manufacturing. This approach has been shown to significantly improve capacity utilization and production personnel input for low-volume/high-mix aerospace products. | en_US |