Demonstrate how an LED light manufacturer should manage materials
Where do you think the quality of LED lights begins?
There can be different answers.
Proper material storage and management can be one of these answers.
We will let you know why this is so critical with a visit to a manufacturer.
And also demonstrate what proper practices can be with real examples.
It’s about a visit to an LED light manufacturer – AOK LED Light Company.
So, keep reading.
We all know that you must store foods and drinks at the proper temperature and humidity.
If the temperature or humidity is not right, the meat will be spoiled, and vegetables will be rotten.
Is it still possible to make a good meal with materials that are already gone bad?
1. The beginning of LED lights’ quality
You don’t need me to tell you the answer and you already know it.
But did you know that it is the same logic for manufacturing electronic products?
- If the materials are not good, you can’t build good products that will last.
- If for LED lights, the finished products may not last or have potential issues during their life span.
Therefore, the first step in working with an LED light manufacturer is to check how they manage their electronic materials.
This is the beginning of quality at a manufacturer’s site.
BackMorning is a quality inspection company that focuses on the LED industry.
We’ve been working with some of the top brands in various countries, regions, and other niche markets.
And we can tell you for sure that this is a critical first step for all those reputable companies.
There is no exception unless quality is your secondary competitiveness.
2. The origin of motivation for quality
Nothing just happens.
It’s always a part of the plan.
The same for quality management.
It is a common practice for manufacturers to cover their issues.
At least they don’t let you know unless you ask, or you check.
But AOK doesn’t take this common practice.
Their General Manager Mr. Rocky Wang invites BackMorning to do a further quality inspection.
They place great emphasis on quality over cost-effectiveness from the beginning.
And the focus is to further optimize the manufacturing of premium LED stadium lights and streetlights.
AOK has a bunch of people full of experienced designers, engineers, and quality inspectors.
They are already operating with an effective quality management system.
However, Mr. Rocky Wang came to BackMorning:
- Can you help me with a third-party quality inspection?
Obviously, their quality comes from the motivation of the top management.
They have the determination to go from good to great.
Therefore, the second step in working with an LED light manufacturer is to talk with their top management.
Especially you should talk with their general manager.
Try to find an answer to only one question:
- Quality and cost-effectiveness, which one they pick as their priority.
3. The day we visit
We pick a day to visit AOK company last week.
They are not far away from BackMorning company.
Both of us are located in the Bao’an district, Shenzhen, Guangdong.
The distance is about 30 minutes by car.
The purpose of this visit is to have an idea about how exactly they are doing.
And how we can help them become even better.
The first step begins with their material management.
Their General Manager Mr. Rocky Wang and Manufacturing Director Mr. Yun Zhao wait for us at the reception desk.
Mr. Yun Zhao accompanies us to their electronic warehouse.
And that’s the beginning of our journey.
4. A comfortable material house
Shenzhen has a typical tropical atmosphere during the summertime.
It’s very hot and wet outside.
You will be so wet like just take a sauna after walking for 2 minutes in the sun.
But the moment we enter the electronic material warehouse, we feel very comfortable shortly.
It cools down and we don’t sweat anymore.
It’s comfortable to stay inside their electronic material warehouse.
There we see an industrial air conditioner on the ceiling, approximately 1 x 1 meter.
Not a small air conditioner for homes and offices.
The cost of running such an industrial air conditioner must be high.
Then we ask their Manufacturing Director Mr. Yunzhao.
Why install such a “luxury” air conditioner in a room that is not for the people?
And he says, they do this to keep the warehouse at the proper temperature and humidity.
- This is essential for the quality assurance of their materials.
- Moreover, this air conditioner is working 24 hours a day, and 365 days through the year.
Frankly speaking, it’s easy to believe they install an air conditioner in the warehouse.
But it’s not so easy to believe they keep it running all the time.
So, Hank asks: do you have anything as proof?
And Mr. Zhao says, yes, of course, we have monitors and spreadsheets to record every day.
5. Numbers are important for quality management
Well, we do see a temperature and humidity meter on the wall.
And the temperature we see is about 26℃ while the humidity is 52%.
Both numbers are within the ranges that are recommended.
Meanwhile, there is also a calibration label on it.
That means they will hire a third-party inspector to calibrate the meter.
Then they will understand whether the one on the wall is working properly.
This is a good practice to keep track of the temperature and humidity.
Meanwhile, they also have a second meter on the other wall.
It’s on the opposite side of the electronic warehouse.
Mr. Zhao explains to us the reason.
The first meter is on the south wall, and it can be warmer because it’s facing the sun.
And the second meter is on the north wall, and this wall doesn’t have sunshine on it.
So, they can compare the temperature and the humidity values on these 2 meters.
The results will be more reliable, which means closer to the truth.
Besides using devices to obtain data, they also use spreadsheets to record the data.
The warehouse keeper will write down the numbers on those spreadsheets every day.
And they will collect the spreadsheets to see whether anything goes wrong.
6. Always repack unused remaining materials
They have a machine at a corner of the warehouse.
We don’t really know what it is at the first glance.
But we are curious, so decide to ask Mr. Zhao.
He explains that it’s a vacuum machine.
The warehouse keeper uses it to repack unused remaining materials.
Suppose they open the package of a roll of 5050 LEDs and use only half of it.
They won’t leave the remaining half roll of LEDs on the table with an open bag.
The warehouse keeper will take a new sealing bag to store them again.
The purpose of this vacuum machine is to take the air out of the bag.
In this way, the remaining LEDs are less likely to degrade due to the remaining air inside.
It’s like storing foods in vacuum bags.
7. First In, First Out
We all know that the inventory management rule First In First Out is essential for manufacturers.
It’s a method of inventory rotation to ensure that the oldest inventory (first in) is used first (first out).
We can say electronic materials are perishable in some way.
It’s important to make sure they are still good before their expiration dates.
So, we ask Mr. Zhao again how they apply this rule to their inventory management.
Here is what we learn about this subject.
1). First, they have an ERP system to keep track of the materials.
They know the time and the quantities for a material to arrive in their warehouse.
And record the expiration dates for this material.
2). Second, they use color labels to identify materials’ carton boxes.
They put a color label on a corner of a carton box.
And will write down the purchase date with a permanent marker.
In these 2 ways, they can make sure the rule First In First Out is implemented properly.
We can’t say it’s perfect, but good for quality assurance.
8. Next step
After visiting their electronic warehouse for a while, we get a first impression about how they are doing.
Then we have some conversations in the meeting room about what to do for next step.
We will make a plan about how to work together in the coming days.
Last but not least, we will visit AOK company again.
- Is there anything that you wish to know about them?
- Or is there anything that you wish to know about LED lights?
Please leave us a comment below.
We will try our best to give you further information that may interest you.
Thanks for reading!
