e$-$Gadget Production $(2013)$

Most common companies that sell electronic devices do not handle their own

manufacturing. Production of devices such as cell phones, televisions, and head

sets is handled in bulk. The production facilities to crank out huge numbers of

devices are equally huge. Items have to be quickly built in large quantities. If a

company built its own devices, the production facilities would be small and take

a long time to put out enough items to meet demand. Or they would be huge and

sit empty most of the time. Instead, companies such as e$-$Gadget have large facto

ries, hire a huge number of workers, and have contracts with many suppliers. The

company signs contracts and uses the facilities to produce massive quantities of

one product at a time. A few weeks later, it shifts to the next product, usually for a

different customer. The product design is specified by the original company $($such

as Apple or Microsoft$),$ but e$-$Gadget helps with innovative products. Because of

the close ties with suppliers, e$-$Gadget is able to suggest uses for new items or

new manufacturing techniques. Quality control is critical to any production, but

particularly for electronic items that have hundreds of component parts. Quality

is evaluated on incoming shipments of parts, through final$-$product testing, and

through returns of failed items. Additional tests are often performed at intermedi

ate steps, but these tests typically relate to the quality of the workers $($or some

times the tools$).$

Customer

Primary Contact

Phone

e$-$mail

Address

City, State, Postal Code

Nation

Design Doc.

Component List

Item

Date Person

Product Name

Version

General Description

Target Cost

Target Date

Initial Quantity

Revision ID

Time$-$Zone

Comments

Quantity Source Contact$/$Phone

Figure $1$

Product Designs

Est. Cost

Products are ultimately designed by the outside companies, but the designers col

laborate with the e$-$Gadget production engineers to ensure that the design is feasi

ble with existing materials and that it can be produced at a reasonable cost. Figure

Project Descriptions

$58$

$1$ shows the most important design information that is collected during the design

phases. It contains basic information about the customer and the product. The Tar

get Cost and Target Date are the estimated cost that will be charged to the cus

tomer for the production of one item, and the target production date. Each design

goes through several revisions and the target values can change along with the

detailed designs. The detailed designs for each revision are specified in different

documents. Most of these documents are electronic and each one has a primary

person in charge of the document. Any questions are directed to that person. The

person$$s time zone is important to minimize problems with calling. Each revision

has a list of components and the number required. The engineers for e$-$Gadget find

an initial source for each component and estimate their cost. These costs are not

released to the company designing the product, but are used by the cost engineers

to estimate the production costs.

Component Quality

Almost every item that is delivered to e$-$Gadget goes through a quality inspec

tion process. Electronic components are particularly critical. Because they are

purchased in large quantities, inspectors usually draw random samples of the ele

ments and run them through various tests. Most electronic tests have ranges $($low$/$

high$)$ for acceptable elements, such as resistance values for resistors. Inspectors

run the sampled items through a collection of pre$-$defined tests and count the num

ber of items that pass each test. As shown in Figure $2,$ these results are then com

bined into an overall score for the shipment. The scoring method is defined by the

engineers and not handled within the database, but the total value is recorded. If

the score is too low, the entire shipment might be rejected. The inspector writes

up any overall comments, which become important if a shipment is rejected. Ac

cepted shipments are assigned an internal lot number and each shipment is stored

separately. The lot number is unique and important. When products fail or are re

turned, the lot number is used to track back to the original supplier and the inspec

tion. If too many failures are noted, then the inspection criteria are tightened, and

the company probably switches suppliers.

Supplier

Factory ID

Contact

TestID

ItemID

Description

Quantity delivered

Lot # Assigned

Name

Delivery Date

Inspector$/$emp$.$

Low High Sample #Pass Pct

Overall score:

Evaluation comments

Figure $2$

Project Descriptions