The announcement of this “smart manufacturing line for key motorcycle-related components” is not only the first of its kind in Taiwan, but also a result of collaboration across software and hardware industries. Tongtai pointed out that while this production line is a joint collaboration with Kwang Yang, it also features integration with Siemens and i-TEC software.

Tongtai also stated that in the past KYMCO would mainly manufacture orders of a single type of vehicle (approximately 20,000 units a month); however, the current number of vehicle types exceeds 290, and each month thousands of units of each type are manufactured. As a result, a production method which mixes lines for batches of items is necessary, even though mixing production lines causes numerous problems. Because of this, a new production method is required.

Taking motorcycle engine covers as an example, smart production lines are equipped with production capacity for one such production line, and overall equipment efficiency (OEE) has increased by 20%, enabling what originally would have taken a period of 72 hours for delivery to be reduced to just 8 hours

(TR/ Phil Sweeney)