Application Research Of Modular Production In VS Suzhou Factory

With the sustaining development of economy, it is a trend that customers are not onlycare the price and quality of their favorite goods, but also the diversification andindividuation need to consider before they make the decision to finalize. Therefore it ishard for enterprise to maintain the competitive advantage at this quickly changing market,if there is only one or few high quality and inexpensive products. The enterprise has tosearch one kind of new production mode in order to approach more and more diversifiedand individual demands from the customers because the disadvantage of the traditionalproduction mode is raised increasingly. In this background, the new mode namedmodularized production mode appeared.As the third industrial revolution, the modularized production mode has been utilizedinto lots of manufacture fields. Most of them achieved very nice performance, especially atthose customized equipment manufacturing enterprises. The new products could besuccessfully launched in a short time base on customers’ demands. Because of thereduction from the stocked material, the relevant inventory and purchasing cost could bedeclined also. Customers will be very satisfied with the improved lead time as well as thehigh quality. At last but not least, it is easy for repair for after sales service on modularizedproducts.This article overviewed the origin and the development on several kinds of productionmodes. The mass production was arisen at the beginning of20century A.D. and the leanmanufacture concept was appeared at1980s. Nowadays, the new modularized productionmode is changing the traditional operation philosophy. Combined with the customizedbusiness mode and modularized production mode, it presents the interaction and relevancebetween them. Taking the VS Suzhou plant as a case, the writer deeply researched its dailymodularized operation situation to further proof the academic application. The whole presentation included four aspects. Firstly, Engineering department needsto rationally breakdown all the parts then combines them into the modules. Secondly,Supplier Chain Management department should do the general capacity analysis on thevendors then select appropriate ones to fit the module supply. Thirdly, Quality departmentdefines the key points on the module kit at the incoming inspection. Fourthly, Productiondepartment set up the module assembly manufacture line with lean production concept.Then writer mentioned several issues which were encountered at actual operation of VSSuzhou plant. There are the rationality of parts combination and supplier adaptability onmodule offering and the difficulty on quality control and the production efficiency. Finallywriter brought out the solutions for these mentioned issues and shared some suggestion infuture further improvement.Through the deep analysis on actual modularized operation situation and overalldiscussion on encountered issues, the writer sincerely expected this article could providethe research value or case reference for the scholars and also hope it could not only enrichthe modular theories, but also provide the practical contribution for promoting thedevelopment of module manufacturing industry.