How PC cases are made: In-Win Factory Tour - bit-tech.net Forums

Claave · 7th Jun 2009, 09:30

http://www.bit-tech.net/bits/events/...factory-tour/1

Rich gets a guided tour around In-Win's case making fcatory, but what's the car park like?

BioSniper · 7th Jun 2009, 10:04

Cheers for the write up Rich, always appreciated when stuff like this is done.
I'd actually quite like to see Lian-Li's plant toured just to see how different it is and how they can afford to charge such eye watering prices :P

logan'srun · 7th Jun 2009, 10:30

+1 on Lian Li

I actually thought this read like they let Nelly do half of it. . .

But for Taiwan factories, it looks above par and pretty clean. Rich should have gotten some more pics of the safety conditions for the workers and for being a factory of 5-600 ppl, didn't see alot of them in the pics. Was it a Saturday? Did you get to eat lunch in the cafeteria with the workers?

DarkLord7854 · 7th Jun 2009, 10:39

That was a really cool article

Turbotab · 7th Jun 2009, 12:12

Thanks for the article, always interesting to see how the items that we use are made; any possibility of a processor fab tour in the future? Bindi, who are you going to get to sit on your suitcase, so you can cram in all the goodies that you must be accruing

DragunovHUN · 7th Jun 2009, 12:20

Not trying to be an ass but, did anyone proofread this?

Yemerich · 7th Jun 2009, 12:56

A pitty there are no movies, but really nice article nonetheless.

Thanks

yodasarmpit · 7th Jun 2009, 13:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by DragunovHUN

Not trying to be an ass but, did anyone proofread this?

Can you specify areas of concern?
This will allow the team to amend any inaccuracies.

CardJoe · 7th Jun 2009, 14:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by DragunovHUN

Not trying to be an ass but, did anyone proofread this?

Three different people, actually. Any typos you point out will be corrected though.

sear · 7th Jun 2009, 15:02

For some reason, seeing factories and similar always depresses me. At least the workers here don't look entirely unhappy.

DragunovHUN · 7th Jun 2009, 16:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by yodasarmpit

Quote:

Originally Posted by DragunovHUN

Not trying to be an ass but, did anyone proofread this?

Can you specify areas of concern?
This will allow the team to amend any inaccuracies.

Gladly. I guess i should have done this sooner, instead of complaining. But it's so much easier to just complain.

First page:

Quote:

In-Win's head offices are can be seen in the picture on the left

Quote:

the building doesn't even have a company logo on the front of the building

Quote:

In the UK a factory building of this side

dylAndroid · 7th Jun 2009, 17:09

I really like seeing factories and manufacturing processes -- thanks for the article!

Like others, it would be neat to see some other case manufacturers for contrast.

Out of curiosity, did you get any figures on what the factory costs? It would be interesting to hear some ballpark numbers from them for what their stamping, painting, and other equipment costs up front, as well as what the labor costs are to support a worker there. Part of the reason why I'm wondering this comes from seeing the guy working on dusting & deburring by hand, whereas there are machines that could have been purchased for this task instead. Most likely after factoring in the direct and indirect costs, quality, and whether or not this task bottlenecked the production line, employing the guy made more sense, but I'd like to see their numbers explaining why.

Also, as for the China vs. Taiwan costs, it may actually be more costly to produce in China. This could show up through quality -- if quality suffers, the company will likely sell fewer cases in the long run, and also have to pay more to address defects in their products. Further, the article suggests that the company believes that the workforce in Taiwan brings a better capability to produce these cases, potentially meaning less cost to train them and possibly less supervision. Then there's also general transaction costs relating to operating in a region -- how much must be payed to the government, what it will cost to reliably get input materials of satisfactory quality supplied, security, etc.

The truth is that for some situations, going for a cheaper sticker price on labor will cost more. Infact, for products that are done with high automation, it may make more sense to just build a factory somewhere you would think would be expensive, such as in the U.S. Processor manufacturing is a good example of this.

C-Sniper · 7th Jun 2009, 17:33

Any chance of a Lian Li or Coolermaster case factory visit?

Javerh · 7th Jun 2009, 21:03

This kind of production looks so old-school nowadays. No signs of lean production or six sigma. And those are old stuff! The fact that a guy is doing deburring by hand in a factory producing thousands of similar parts speaks volumes of their level of automation. I feel sorry for them.

DragunovHUN · 7th Jun 2009, 21:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Javerh

This kind of production looks so old-school nowadays. No signs of lean production or six sigma. And those are old stuff! The fact that a guy is doing deburring by hand in a factory producing thousands of similar parts speaks volumes of their level of automation. I feel sorry for them.

Well at least they have jobs. Think about it. If their factories were automated, THEN you'd have a reason to feel sorry for them because they'd be unemployed.

logan'srun · 7th Jun 2009, 21:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by DragunovHUN

Quote:

Originally Posted by Javerh

This kind of production looks so old-school nowadays. No signs of lean production or six sigma. And those are old stuff! The fact that a guy is doing deburring by hand in a factory producing thousands of similar parts speaks volumes of their level of automation. I feel sorry for them.

Well at least they have jobs. Think about it. If their factories were automated, THEN you'd have a reason to feel sorry for them because they'd be unemployed.

Six Sigma? ORLY? Been to many factories in Asia? I doubt it. What you see is a fact of life in SE Asia and most factories still save money by using hand labor instead of buying an expensive machine. Most factories are so basic that the owners close after one bad season. Just lock the doors and disappear leaving an empty shell of a building. Then you'd really have something to be sorry about.
Let's see what happens in the next few months as all factories are taking orders now for Q1-2 2010 and see who survives the backlash of the 'crisis' .

Bindibadgi · 8th Jun 2009, 01:29

[quote=logan'srun]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DragunovHUN

Six Sigma? ORLY? Been to many factories in Asia? I doubt it. What you see is a fact of life in SE Asia and most factories still save money by using hand labor instead of buying an expensive machine. Most factories are so basic that the owners close after one bad season. Just lock the doors and disappear leaving an empty shell of a building. Then you'd really have something to be sorry about.
Let's see what happens in the next few months as all factories are taking orders now for Q1-2 2010 and see who survives the backlash of the 'crisis' .

That's exactly what they do. Factories are disposable - three to five years and they move out and build another, mostly because the heat and humidity make the cost of upkeep too much. Then people come along and strip it of everything to sell, then eventually it's demolished and started fresh. This process is in China though where there is ample space, but Taiwan doesn't have this luxury.

I've also got a Seasonic factory tour too - a little of the same lines of workers etc, but with far more detail on the PSU process. I'm trying to find a way to write it without sounding like I'm their biggest fanboy. Their level of QA/QC is beyond excellent.

Javerh · 8th Jun 2009, 04:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by logan'srun

Six Sigma? ORLY? Been to many factories in Asia? I doubt it. What you see is a fact of life in SE Asia and most factories still save money by using hand labor instead of buying an expensive machine. Most factories are so basic that the owners close after one bad season. Just lock the doors and disappear leaving an empty shell of a building. Then you'd really have something to be sorry about.
Let's see what happens in the next few months as all factories are taking orders now for Q1-2 2010 and see who survives the backlash of the 'crisis' .

That's just why I feel sorry for the workers.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DragunovHUN

Well at least they have jobs. Think about it. If their factories were automated, THEN you'd have a reason to feel sorry for them because they'd be unemployed.

Some of them would lose their jobs, but some of them could be able to have a job for decades. In addition to that, lots of asian factories consider their workforce to be expendable. It doesn't comfort a permanently injured ex-factory worker to know that others have a job. Especially if they have a job until they too get injured.

dylAndroid · 8th Jun 2009, 08:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by DragunovHUN

Well at least they have jobs. Think about it. If their factories were automated, THEN you'd have a reason to feel sorry for them because they'd be unemployed.

The fear of technology and automation taking away jobs actually goes back over a hundred years, such as when mechanical weaving loom was introduced.

In general, adding machine capital allows a given number of people to get even more things accomplished. In the long run, instead of putting people out of work, people shift jobs to new positions made possible by the leverage that the added machine capital has added. For example, a car company could provide higher safety and more design features in each car, with the same number of workers. Or in a larger perspective, society can support the creation of new companies, as well as push its economy further past basic survival industries (food, shelter, etc), and improve quality of life for most people if not everyone.

In the short run, adding technology creates change, which can be painful. People may need to train themselves in new skills to make a shift, and some people may find themselves out of work and unable to properly care for their families for a while. But this sort of thing happens even in the regular battling of organizations anyway, showing up strongly at times like right now. So factoring in all the good aspects of technology, machinery is quite a good thing, when economically and strategically appropriate to implement.

People and employment is more a conversation about education, health, rule of law, etc., than it is about technology. Well, until/unless society gets to the point of computer intelligence mixed with pervasive automation that individual work is no longer necessary to society. I ran across a section of books in a basement storage area of one of my school's libraries, arguing furiously with each other about whether that would be awesome or the doom of us all.

SARTH · 8th Jun 2009, 10:59

Taiwan has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the world - under 5% and highest literacy rates - over 95%. Their per capita income is just under 32K which is just below Germany and Canada !!! I wouldn't worry so much about automation and such. And obviously, no disrespect to bit-tech.net, but I highly doubt, they went out of their way to clean the factory up before the tour.

7th Jun 2009, 09:30	#1
Claave You Rebel scum Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: London Posts: 210	How PC cases are made: In-Win Factory Tour http://www.bit-tech.net/bits/events/...factory-tour/1 Rich gets a guided tour around In-Win's case making fcatory, but what's the car park like?

7th Jun 2009, 10:04	#2
BioSniper I Mod, Therefore I Own Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Somewhere in the south Posts: 3,460	Cheers for the write up Rich, always appreciated when stuff like this is done. I'd actually quite like to see Lian-Li's plant toured just to see how different it is and how they can afford to charge such eye watering prices :P __________________ My Flickr :: Bit-tech Flickr Wii: 1792 1527 2926 7945 :: Xbox Live: BioSnipr :: PSN: Biosnipr

7th Jun 2009, 10:39	#4
DarkLord7854 Web Developer Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: West Palm Beach, Florida Posts: 3,840	That was a really cool article __________________ Current Computer: eVGA 780i Motherboard \| Q6600 Core2Quad \| eVGA GTX260 896Mbs 216-core \| 2x Seagate 500Gbs \| 8Gbs OCZ Platinum DDR2 800 \| Creative XtremeGamer X-Fi \| Thermaltake Armor Case Custom WordPress, ZenCart, Joomla, vBulletin, etc installs and skinning, PM/E-Mail for a quote

7th Jun 2009, 12:56	#7
Yemerich What's a rebimboca da parafuseta? Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Sao Paulo - Brazil Posts: 714	A pitty there are no movies, but really nice article nonetheless. Thanks __________________ Bit Tech is more than games and hardware - check out the mods too. Don't let modding die in Bit-Tech.net.

7th Jun 2009, 21:03	#14
Javerh Superfreak Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Tampere, Finland Posts: 655	This kind of production looks so old-school nowadays. No signs of lean production or six sigma. And those are old stuff! The fact that a guy is doing deburring by hand in a factory producing thousands of similar parts speaks volumes of their level of automation. I feel sorry for them. __________________ Project: Seawolf "Problems cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them."

7th Jun 2009, 10:30	#3
logan'srun following the footsteps of giants Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Sweden Posts: 308	+1 on Lian Li I actually thought this read like they let Nelly do half of it. . . But for Taiwan factories, it looks above par and pretty clean. Rich should have gotten some more pics of the safety conditions for the workers and for being a factory of 5-600 ppl, didn't see alot of them in the pics. Was it a Saturday? Did you get to eat lunch in the cafeteria with the workers?

7th Jun 2009, 12:12	#5
Turbotab I don't touch type, I tard type Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: UK Posts: 1,130	Thanks for the article, always interesting to see how the items that we use are made; any possibility of a processor fab tour in the future? Bindi, who are you going to get to sit on your suitcase, so you can cram in all the goodies that you must be accruing

7th Jun 2009, 12:20	#6
DragunovHUN Never did a proper mod in his life Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Hungary Posts: 1,188	Not trying to be an ass but, did anyone proofread this?

7th Jun 2009, 15:02	#10
sear Multimodder Join Date: Apr 2009 Posts: 120	For some reason, seeing factories and similar always depresses me. At least the workers here don't look entirely unhappy.

7th Jun 2009, 17:09	#12
dylAndroid is human? Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 72	I really like seeing factories and manufacturing processes -- thanks for the article! Like others, it would be neat to see some other case manufacturers for contrast. Out of curiosity, did you get any figures on what the factory costs? It would be interesting to hear some ballpark numbers from them for what their stamping, painting, and other equipment costs up front, as well as what the labor costs are to support a worker there. Part of the reason why I'm wondering this comes from seeing the guy working on dusting & deburring by hand, whereas there are machines that could have been purchased for this task instead. Most likely after factoring in the direct and indirect costs, quality, and whether or not this task bottlenecked the production line, employing the guy made more sense, but I'd like to see their numbers explaining why. Also, as for the China vs. Taiwan costs, it may actually be more costly to produce in China. This could show up through quality -- if quality suffers, the company will likely sell fewer cases in the long run, and also have to pay more to address defects in their products. Further, the article suggests that the company believes that the workforce in Taiwan brings a better capability to produce these cases, potentially meaning less cost to train them and possibly less supervision. Then there's also general transaction costs relating to operating in a region -- how much must be payed to the government, what it will cost to reliably get input materials of satisfactory quality supplied, security, etc. The truth is that for some situations, going for a cheaper sticker price on labor will cost more. Infact, for products that are done with high automation, it may make more sense to just build a factory somewhere you would think would be expensive, such as in the U.S. Processor manufacturing is a good example of this.

8th Jun 2009, 10:59	#20
SARTH What's a Dremel? Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 2	Taiwan has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the world - under 5% and highest literacy rates - over 95%. Their per capita income is just under 32K which is just below Germany and Canada !!! I wouldn't worry so much about automation and such. And obviously, no disrespect to bit-tech.net, but I highly doubt, they went out of their way to clean the factory up before the tour.