Ongoing improvement of production procedures

Process Improvements

YOKE has promoted improvements in the manufacturing process for five major products for years. Covering operations including forging, processing, thermal treatment and assembly, the project now has led to as many as 49 sub-projects to be conceived, with improvement methods such as improving material specification, using equipment with lower energy consumption, reducing line change time, improve equipment capacity, improving mold design, extending tool lifecycle and so forth. Among these projects, we have completed 14 sub-projects in 2020 related to our objectives of boosting productivity and lowering the risks of disabling injuries.

Name of project	Boost efficiency	Process optimization	Process simplification	Reduce material consumption	Enhance work safety
Assembly adhesive dispensing to welding process	v	v		v
Standardization of assembly wire frame mold parameters	v	v
N-3616 laser process improvement	v	v	v
Improve aluminum forging material recovery rate				v
Flash welding utilization rate improvement project	v	v
Optimize the use of thermal treatment quenching oil		v		v
Thermal treatment furnace timer improvement				v
Improvement of YKN94 series steel cable drawing	v	v	v	v
PLM open drawing QR CODE input efficiency improvement	v		v
Improvement of mold change efficiency of forging and cutting machine	v	v	v		v
Improvement of water leakage from oily water separator tank				v
RFID product workflow improvement
Improvement of blowing material of punching die	v		v

Introduction of total productive management (TPM)

Building upon the foundation of promoting 6S that began in 2015, YOKE has examined various areas for improvement in the work environment from the aspects of man, machine, material, method, environment and safety and has gradually improved various standard operating procedures. With the groundwork set, we launched our Total Productive Management in 2019 in order to further enhance the efficiency and outcome of our manufacturing processes so that we can establish a solid foundation to bolster the Company’s sales performance. Initially, we focused on the establishment of independent maintenance subcommittees and individual improvement subcommittees. Committees dealing with improvement issues at moderate or low difficulty have been classified as independent maintenance subcommittees, with the corresponding departments taking charge of the improvements. Our focus for 2020 rested on the promotion of key performance indicators for the promotion of scheduled maintenance: reduction in the average repair time for key equipment, the extension of service time between malfunctions for key equipment, reduction of repair costs and improvement in monthly close rate for the request for equipment repair. The project pointed to 59 improvements that we could make for our Class A equipment and after relevant improvements, we were able to achieve 10.5 hours of repair time per month in 2020, which is a reduction of 1.1 hours compared to that of 2019. Our mean time between failures in 2020 came to 1,363 hours each month, which is a decrease by 39 hours compared to that of 2019. By completing 19 of the individual improvement projects, we could save up to NTD 3.425 million in actual costs. The key energy-saving achievements of TPM involve the adjustment of scheduling mechanisms, stock control, personnel familiarity and other mechanisms to increase machine utilization rate, improve energy efficiency and reduce energy consumption.