We had the chance to journey to Shenzhen to go to one in every of MSI‘s manufacturing models. It’s a really particular place, just because we have been fortunate sufficient to go to it a (good) few years in the past. And like China as a complete, issues have modified rather a lot right here too. MSI is an organization headquartered in Taiwan. To supply its merchandise, the corporate operates three massive manufacturing vegetation positioned in Shenzhen, Kunshan and Taoyuan (Taiwan). The Shenzhen website was commissioned within the early Nineteen Eighties (1983). It specialises in motherboards and graphics playing cards, however over time it has additionally diversified its companies, specifically by assembling PCs and servers. This diversification is principally the results of the gradual automation of the location, to which we’ll return later.
MSIS (MSI Shenzhen): a huge website
The model communicates very nicely on the big scale of this website. Its facility covers an space of 200,000 m², equal to round 28 soccer pitches. It’s clearly a metropolis inside a metropolis on the outskirts of Shenzhen. There are houses, retailers, eating places (for workers) and varied companies. This dimension permits for a powerful month-to-month manufacturing capability, with 1,300,000 motherboards, 1,000,000 graphics playing cards, 500,000 desktop PCs, 70,000 servers and community gear, in addition to 200,000 digital gadgets for automotive and industrial purposes. Take these figures over the course of a 12 months, and also you get a possible 15 million motherboards…
Initially, the location was designed to accommodate round 15,000 employees, with capability rising to twenty,000 at peak. Manufacturing capability for motherboards was between 3 and 5 million models for a full 12 months. Right this moment, automation is in full swing and there are ‘solely’ 1,500 to 2,500 workers on website for a capability of 15 million motherboards… However the website additionally produces PCs, servers, AIOs and graphics playing cards. In comparison with the distant previous of our first go to, the {qualifications} of the staff have risen significantly. As has the general way of life in Shenzhen, however that’s one other (lengthy) story to inform you.
110 metres to beginning and pack a motherboard
This video exhibits the journey of a motherboard from its ‘beginning’ to its remaining packaging. A journey of 110 metres (the size of this manufacturing line) that takes a mean of 45 minutes. In the mean time, you’ll discover that on the finish of the journey, many handbook steps are nonetheless essential (high quality management, exams, and so on.). The location supervisor estimates that the extent of automation is just 60%.
Life on the MSI Shenzhen website
As the location is on the outskirts of Shenzhen, life on website is organised to be sensible and subsequently productive. Studios can be found for workers who come to work. We’re clearly less than the requirements of absolute luxurious, however we’re a great distance from the picture individuals have of this sort of lodging. They’re purposeful, clear, air-conditioned (important on this area) and outfitted with web entry. We didn’t have permission to take any images, however imagine me, a few of the pupil studios in Paris are a lot scarier… Then again, they’re rented out to workers for…6€ / month! On website you’ll discover a library, a restaurant, a hairdressing salon…
The motherboard part doesn’t take up the entire website – quite the opposite, we’ll come again later to the opposite sections that make up the location. The realm accountable for manufacturing the graphics playing cards was very compartmentalised… On the plan under, it’s half A, which offers with motherboards, that we visited. There are a complete of 12 traces devoted to motherboards.
Extra content material to return within the subsequent few days.
