While Netflix is moving towards streaming, the other big U.S. rental movie player, Redbox, still uses physical discs. And those discs need kiosks in the tens of thousands, dotting supermarkets and Wal-Marts across the country, which in turn requires a massive amount of manufacturing.
Rather than shift production of the kiosks overseas, Redbox manufacturer Flextronics has incorporated "Six Sigma Lean manufacturing techniques" into their North Carolina plant to keep costs down. Beyond the Japanese-style quality control methods we'll get to in a second, the other tricks and shortcuts of the system are quite interesting. For example, each Redbox is made by a team, and at the start of each unit's production, a team member is dispatched to the parts warehouse--the "supermarket"--with a "shopping cart" (both shown above). They then load the cart up with every single part and screw they'll need for a single machine, no more, no less, and bring that back to the team.As each Redbox begins to take shape, the team and the 'Box move to different stations to complete different manufacturing steps, with each station equipped with a monitor displaying assembly instructions.
As for those Japanese manufacturing methods:
The production of each redbox is an exercise in reducing waste... Like many large-scale manufacturers, [the factory] has adopted assembly practices developed in Japan. It uses the well-known 'Just in Time' approach to parts supply, along with Kanban, a ticketing method that tracks each part, from the box itself to every one-quarter inch screw, to better control flow. If you have one too few or one too many, you know you have a problem.
Parts come with a minimum of wrapping and boxing because "we would just have to unwrap it and throw it out anyway," said Earnest Steinhoff, manager of operational excellence at the plant.
Read more about the process at SelfServiceWorld's full article.
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