Expanding business with lean manufacturing principles

As a result of constantly rethinking how we do business to improve our product outcomes and internal work procedures, we have expanded our production and implemented new processes at our manufacturing facility in Thailand. This brought along a set of improved lean manufacturing principles, intended to streamline the manufacturing setup additionally and better our results. 

Our Thailand factory is where the majority of our electrical components are produced. It houses approximately 250 employees who know the process by heart. To further improve the process and increase our production, we expanded our facility with an additional 1035 m². 

A new cellular manufacturing layout 

With the extra space for production, we have implemented new means of lean manufacturing and restructured the entire production to improve efficiency. We created individual production lines to have one production line for each product type. This manufacturing layout is called linear production cells or I-shaped cells, which means that each product will pass through a completely straight and streamlined production line where the components will undergo winding, mounting, stripping, soldering, potting, testing, etc. before leaving the production. 

The linear production cell layout was the appropriate solution for us as we supply high-volume products, where we produce several product types on a larger scale. The process is semi-automated, meaning that we have experienced people handling the components and supervising the process throughout the manufacturing setup, ensuring that the quality and performance live up to Flux's usual standard. 

With our high-quality production equipment, we ensure that our components always live up to the industry standards. So, to ensure that we always stay competitive, we continuously invest in the newest equipment and technologies.

Do you want more? 

Do you want to read more about the manufacturing equipment and technologies that we employ at our Thailand facility? Then click here to explore this topic further. 

Let's have a look at our cells 

Working with cellular manufacturing, you arrange different machines functionally in specific geometric layouts and larger functional units known as manufacturing cells to optimize the production process.

With an optimized production process in our manufacturing facility, we ensure growth capacities within the markets; Light Industrial, Renewables, and E-mobility. This restructuring will increase our production capacity by 35%, which, besides allowing us to upscale the original capacity, means that we can add to our current number of employees. 

Advantages of a cellular manufacturing setup 

Cellular manufacturing has a series of advantages if implemented properly. Besides making our production more effective, it has multiple benefits in terms of workflow and optimization.

These are some of the primary advantages of our cellular manufacturing setup.

1. Improved communication between employees

2. Reduced changeover time

3. A reduction in space requirements 

4. Less waste in terms of production capacity and material resources 

5. Enhanced detection of product defects due to improved quality control

6. Continous improvement within each production cell due to the enhanced focus on process optimization and waste reduction 

7. Shortened production time, entailing a reduced lead time between order placement and delivery 

Exceeding the advantages listed above, our linear production cells bring along several economic advantages. A reduction in waste and an improvement in work efficiency inevitably causes a reduction in production costs. We utilize these cost savings to further improve our manufacturing setup as well as staff quantity and -quality to continuously ensure that we can deliver some of the best magnetic components to our customers within the automotive, industrial, and renewable industries. 

To keep the production as streamlined as possible, the facility has been accommodated to fit the exact needs of our employees, while enabling them to work according to our improved lean manufacturing principles and constantly improve our production.

Did this evoke a further interest in our production facilities in Bangkok, Thailand? Contact John Willum, our COO of Industrial & Automotive, to find out more.