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PC Assembly Plant
PC Assembly Plant
PC Assembly Plant
SANYA-ISIJOLA, ADEMUYIWA
OCTOBER, 2006
Table of Contents
Introduction
Design Processes
Manufacturing Constraints
10
10
PC Components
11
Safety Considerations
14
Staff Qualification
15
Assembling the PC
15
Marketing
16
Conclusion
17
References
18
Glossary
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1.
INTRODUCTION
2.
Choice of location has a profound effect on the entire business life; a bad
choice may all but guarantee failure, a good choice, success. Location is a very
critical factor; its impact is not only on our customers, but on our employees and
potential business associates.
Location is more than just choosing a site for building or construction of assembly
plant and there is more to consider than just COST. There are several factors that
determine choice of site for the assembly plant, they include:
State/City
Our customers
Our employees
Potential investors
Cost
Safety/Security
Facility requirements
2.1.
STATE
Nigeria is a country with 36 states; each of these states has various regulatory
requirements. Income and sales taxes also differ from state to state. Some states
and their cities are also friendly to entrepreneurship while others are less
accommodating. Availability of labor and costs of rent will also determine the
state /city where the plant will reside. Thus, the chosen state must be of benefit
to the organization.
2.2.
Some specific areas in Nigeria have been set apart as industrial locations. They
contain numerous industries that produce different products. The question is: Do
we need to be visible to other businesses? Shouldnt we be easily accessible to
our clients? The answer to these questions will be based on certain reasons and
will determine the kind of environment in which the plant will be located.
2.3.
CUSTOMERS
The customers are the reason why we are in business; they could be other
organizations or end users that need our products. The location must be
convenient and accessible to our customers.
2.4.
EMPLOYEES
The employees are the strength of our company, their commitment and skills will
help maintain the QoS and standards of our organization. The location of the
assembly plant must be attractive to keep our good employees.
2.5.
POTENTIAL INVESTORS
Later in the future, there may be a need to bring in investors into the organization
especially when there is need for expansion. The potential investors looking at
the long term value of the business will see location as an important factor. For
example building the assembly plant in an area that is constantly disturbed by
ethnic crisis will discourage investors.
2.6.
COST
Cutting cost and maximizing profit are issues every organization wants to
achieve. There are several areas in which the plant can be located, the costs
vary from place to place. The overall cost of running the assembly plant must
also be projected before the final decision is made. After purchasing the site,
some other miscellaneous cost will be incurred before and during the building.
These may include the cost of settling Land disputes between the families that
own the Land or the AREA BOYS that tend to disturb the building unless they are
settled. Such kinds of expenses can be reduced by carrying out proper
investigation.
2.7.
SAFETY / SECURITY
Safety and security are serious issues that should be examined before
determining where the assembly plant will be located. There are many volatile
areas in the country where industrial properties are vandalized, staffs are
abducted etc. The intended location must be safe and secured for the
employees, customers and the plant itself.
2.8.
FACILITY REQUIREMENTS
The assembly plant may have special needs and many requirements such as
large parking space, acres of land for the building/ room for expansion, high
power consumption etc. These requirements are necessary for the effective
running of the assembly plant and should be available at the location.
Are the utilities needed to run the business available in the area?
3.
DESIGN PROCESSES
Procedure Definition.
To achieve the best results, the factory design processes are executed through
these distinct phases. A design team consisting of experts from various fields is
formed and this team goes through each phase, looking for the best approach
to resolve issues.
These design processes will help in developing a factory that is flexible enough to
adapt to rapidly changing demands and product mix, while keeping costs at a
minimum.
3.1.
This phase involves reviewing the current best practices in the personal
computer industry through literature searches and visits to other existing PC
assembling plants especially in Nigeria. Using the existing Nigerian assembly
plants, the design team not only can select the best approach to successfully
assemble and test the PCs but also adapt them to the consumers needs.
3.2.
The design team needs to agree on the principles that would guide the design
process. Some of these concepts will be based on the teams knowledge and
experience in manufacturing while some will base on modern Operations
Management theories. The initial design concepts will cover all areas of the
future operation of the factory, including manufacturing, training, metrics, and
management.
3.3.
DESIGN GUIDELINES
After generating the overarching design concepts, the team starts to discuss the
details of what the factory should look like, and how it should operate. The
factory designs that were observed through research and benchmarking will be
reviewed, and parts of each of these will be selected based on the design
concepts. During this phase, majority of the design formulation will be done.
Once this is complete, a picture of what the factory would look like will emerge,
with only the details left to be added. These guidelines define the characteristics
of the factory; they provide for the efficient use of resources to minimize the cost
of final assembly and test, and they provide flexibility for assembling different
products. These guidelines may include the following:
Sequential
process
for
material
positioning,
inspection,
packing,
Once the above guidelines were developed, the specific factory layout is
defined. Because the guidelines had been developed as a cross-functional
team, the individual team members are now able to design their areas of the
plant layout, without risk of incompatibilities between functional areas.
The detailed design process involves comparing various vendors workstations
and abilities to customize their products to the specific tasks required in this
factory. Many of the ideas for workstation design came from the benchmarking
process.
3.5.
Once the layout of the factory is determined, a simple formulae based on the
expected hands-on cycle time for the different areas of the factory will be
developed in order to calculate the number of personnel required for different
levels of production. This in return will help forecast the material requirements for
workstations, conveyors, carts, flow racks and warehousing equipment.The
forecasts will be based on the expected mean cycle times for the different
operations: data that was collected during the benchmarking phase.
3.6.
PROCEDURE DEFINITION
The final phase of the factory design process will involve the installation all of the
equipment, verification of the operation of the planned processes, and the
development of procedures that would be used for training and execution.
During the development of these procedures, the errors in any assumptions will
be analyzed, and adjustments to the layout, equipment and personnel
requirements will be made.
3.7.
PRODUCTS
4.
NOTE
There are obviously many factors that influence the decision of whether to
structure the assembly process in serial or in parallel. There is no one size fits all
answer; individual circumstances will dictate which is more effective for a given
product.
5.
MANUFACTURING CONSTRAINTS
6.
Assembling a PC from the scratch involves the use of certain tools, the tools listed
below are the standard tools used for PC assembly.
Screwdriver
Tweezers
Flashlight
Magnifier
Multi-meter
Miscellaneous tools
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7.
PC COMPONENTS
There are several components that make up the PC, the main components that
constitute the PC will be discussed in brief.
7.1.
PC CASE
One of the first items to buy when building a PC is the casing. There are two
basic styles of casing,
Which ever is used, the process for assembling the PC is the same. they are :
Desktop
Tower
Also cases are specific to motherboard types. This is known as the form factor of
the motherboard. Other factors also determine the style of case to choose they
include Size, Looks, features, stability, ease of opening, ease of closing,
expansion possibilities and interior.
7.2.
Most PC cases come with there own power supply unit (PSU).Factors such as
Power consumption and power output determine if a PSU is appropriate or
good. A good PSU must be able to deliver all the power the PC needs. The
various components of the PC also have various power consumption rating. It
must be ensured that the line voltage of the PSU is the correct rating. E.g The line
voltage rating for Nigeria is 220-240v.
7.3.
The CPU is the brain of the PC. It is where all the data processing is carried out
and where all the instructions are interpreted. The motherboard is the nervous
system, responsible for carrying data to and from other devices in the PC and
connected to it. The CPU fits into the motherboard via a socket called a ZIF
socket. (ZIF stands for Zero Insertion Force, and the hundreds of pins on the base
of the CPU are designed to slip effortlessly into the socket.). The motherboard
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provides the circuitry that forms the pathways between the CPU and the RAM,
hard drives, optical drives (CD/DVD drives), expansion cards, and other devices
as well as carrying data to and from other components. The motherboard is
responsible for carrying power to these devices.
CPUs are one area that causes people a lot of confusion and frustration.
Basically, there are two major corporations competing in the PC arena. These
are:
o
INTEL
AMD
Speed
Socket Types
Dual-core/hyper-threading/64-bit processors
CPU sockets
RAM slots
Chipsets
Power connectors
Keyboard socket
Mouse port
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Serial/parallel port
USB ports
On-board modem
Firewire ports
7.4.
RAM (an acronym for random access memory) is a working memory space
that PCs use to load data and programs that are regularly accessed. The
data stored in RAM can be accessed in any order (hence the word
random) as opposed to, say, data stored on magnetic tapes, which has to
be read sequentially (this format is uncommon nowadays other than for
backups). The main reason for loading data into RAM as opposed to
accessing data directly off the hard drive is that its much faster to access
data from RAM than it is from a hard drive. There are different types of RAM
but the common modern types are
DDR RAM
DDR2 RAM
DDR stands for Double Data Rate, the word double because it is twice as fast
as regular SDRAM (Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory).
7.5.
HARD DRIVE
The hard drive is a computers main storage device and is used to store data
such as the operating system, the applications, and the users files and
documents, as well as system settings particular to the user. What goes on inside
a hard drive is not important information when it comes to building a PC.
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8.
SAFETY CONSIDERATIONS
In order to maintain high QoS and also produce PCs that would be of world
standard, certain precautions must be implemented during the assembly
process. This will help reduce manufacturing faults and waste of materials during
production.
i.
ii.
The Engineer should check the specification carefully before opening the
items to ensure that the CPU and motherboard are compatible
iii.
Keep CPUs in their packaging until required: A modern CPU can have
v.
vi.
Store your hard drive in a well protected box and wrapped in an antistatic
bag: This is the way the drive is stored when it was purchased .Keep it
stored like this until it is required.
vii.
The hard drive should be protected from falls and sharp knocks because
its a sensitive mechanical device.
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viii.
The connectors at the end of the drive must be protected from damage.
These connectors consist of small pins that are easily bent or broken off. A
bent pin can be straightened with a pair of tweezers if the Engineer is very
careful (and very lucky), but a broken pin means a dead drive.
ix.
Hard drive should be installed at room temperature. If the hard drive has
been stored in a cold, humid environment, the drive should be allowed to
come up to room temperature naturally over a few hours before installing
it. This will dramatically reduce the amount of wear and tear that the drive
will experience when first switched on. Its also a good idea to do this too
if its just been delivered to you after transit in the mail.
x.
Never peel any labels off the drive; this can invalidate your warranty.
xi.
Stuck power cables and data ribbons: The power cables and data
ribbons are prime candidates for becoming stuck after being fitted. Never
tug on the wires to remove them because this can easily damage the
cables. To safely remove the connector, firmly grasp the connector and
pull on it gently, gradually increasing the force until it gives way.
9.
STAFF QUALIFICATION:
Employment of staff is a critical safety issue. The Staff in the assembly plant must
be mentally and educationally sound. It is advised that the engineers have the
proper professional certification and academic qualification.
10.
ASSEMBLING THE PC
Before a PC can be assembled, at the very least, the following components must
be available.
PC case
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CPU
RAM
Hard drive
CD/DVD drive
Keyboard
Mouse
Monitor
Below is a summary of the steps involved in assembling the PC from the scratch.
The configuration of each PC could be different but the procedure is the same.
HDD
Coupling the various components into the PC casing, ensuring that every
screw is in place.
11.
Packaging of the PC
Storage
MARKETING.
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12.
CONCLUSION
The main competitors of PC Assembly in Nigeria are Zinox and Omatek who
both started recently. As new comers into the PC assembly arena, emulating
Dells direct-sales/build-to-order strategy and its competitive pressures can send
our organization straight to the top of the industry.
To be the number one PC Company, there has to be an aggressive supply and
distribution chain to reduce costs and respond more quickly to demand signals.
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REFERENCES
www.nolo.com
www.entrepreneur.com
www.thetimes100.co.uk
www.entrepreneur.about.com
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GLOSSARY
QoS
Quality of Service
ESD
Electrostatic Discharge
PSU
CPU
ZIF
RAM
USB
SATA
PCI
AGP
CREDITS:
SANYA-ISIJOLA, ADEMUYIWA
08023866188
Simi4ever2001@yahoo.com
Simi4ever2001@hotmail.com
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