Silver Box Production Efficiency Improvement: A Case Study

Abstract

At present, Thailand has a high export value of automobiles and automotive parts. This makes the automotive industry one of the industries that play an important role in driving the country's economy. The company used as a case study has been in the business of producing automotive parts for various companies in Asia, Europe and America. The production process at Line R1-Row #1 produces the Silver Box, a non-screen car stereo. This product provides entertainment in the car and has various facilitating functions such as GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System). It is a satellite navigation system providing coordinate information on the Earth's surface by using electronic devices as receivers to calculate and display the position coordinates at the point where the receiver is located. This research aims to improve production efficiency of the Silver Box product in case study. From the study and survey of the production process of Silver Box at Line R1-Low#1, consisting of 2 main processes namely assembly process and inspection process, it was found that at the beginning of the production process, it took more time than the standard time set. Therefore, we tried to find a way to reduce the startup time at the assembly process in the beginning of the production process by using PDCA principle (Plan Do Check and Action). It started with the study and time data collection before improvement. The data were then analyzed to determine the main cause by using the fish-bone diagram together with the 3GEN principle. The Why-Why Analysis was applied to find the actual cause and the way to improve. After improvement, it was found that the average startup loss time during the beginning of the Silver Box production process was reduced from the original average time of 26.87 minutes to 17.15 minutes and the average productivity for the first hour was increased from 20 pieces per hour to 30 pieces per hour. This improvement allowed the factory to increase workpiece production at 320 pieces per month, representing an increase in value of 1,760,000 baht per month.