Methodology for optimizing factory resource productivity and efficiency

• Main Author: Leung, Shuk Fan.
• Other Authors: School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
• Format: Theses and Dissertations
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Manufacturing
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/54693
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

For the past decades, the trend of the manufacturing industries is to move the production line to Asia to enjoy cost benefits with lower labour cost as well as the landscape advantage of close to the component suppliers and end-user markets. In Singapore, many new firms startup with either new product manufacturing or being the manufacturer for multi-national corporations (MNCs) which transfer their production from other manufacturing bases. Hence, the needs for the local firms to learn the knowhow on correct strategy is critical in order to enhance their productivity. Implementation of strategies such as technology roadmap, business modeling and lean manufacturing becomes critical not only to the large organisation, but also the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), in order to enhance their competitiveness in terms of efficiency as well as productivity with limited resources. Reviews on the current methodologies available in the industries, most of them are targeting companies with their own product design or services. Some of those startup companies and SMEs may not have the research and design (R&D) capability at the starting phase, but it will be important for these companies to implement some form of roadmap planning and manufacturing strategies as the foundation and improve their operation. Through this work, the current medthodologies on technology roadmap and business modeling will be evaluated and a new methodology will be proposed to guide the startup firm and SMEs, to adopt a simple method to setup their pilot production locally to achieve operational excellence.