Company Background
It was founded in Taiwan in 1992. They are the producers of circuit boards (mother and
GPU). They also supplied PC manufacturers like Dell, HP and Compaq. The company’s
focus on cost management made it competitive.
By 2000s, AIC became an original design manufacturer (ODM). The company was
involved in innovating and designing new generations of components. The company
shifted total production volume to China. Operations team shifted learning curve down and
took advantage of lower labor costs. Chen and Lapin designed 4 assembly lines, with 10
operators. Each line produces 700 notebooks per 9hour shift/ 6days per week. They also
need to be flexible and design a line that can adjust to the market new specifications and
products. So each line had an adequate supply.
The operations were not difficult, so the process demanded dexterity: efficiency, speed and
no wasted movements. They encouraged to netbook assembly a Kaizen approach. They
also designed 2 Floaters.
At the end of the line the product is moved to a quality test.
By March 2008: They start the development of the quick net. James Ashey wanted to be
the first company to introduce an Atom-based netbook. Ashey and his team designed an
improved motherboard called “Koda”, it was small, green, and powerful.
The Koda board offered: solid capacitors, a BIOS that allowed overcloking, and a lower
profile heat sink that allowed for a thinner netbook.