Optimization of a Hard Disk Factory

Abstract

This paper takes the Western Digital hard disk factory in Kuching as a case study and describes the operation and develops improvements for its operation. High-tech factory operation is vastly different from factories that can produce the same product over a long period of time, such as a can-food factory. Defects and improvements to operation of this factory were developed. In a hard disk factory, a continuous improvement must be made to increase the data density or else the company can lose its market share and go out of business in a short time and examples of this happening were described. The competition in the hard disk business is not only from other hard disks companies but also other memory technologies (particularly solid-state drives) because memory has become a fundamental requisite for the current human civilization and this has been exacerbated by the advent of IoT. Modular operation and not full automation is optimum for a high-tech factory due to the requirement for continuous research plus ease of troubleshooting in a dynamically changing machine set. The same general improvements suggested in this paper for the Western Digital factory, can be implemented in other high-tech factories.

Keywords: Hard disk drive (HDD), high tech, modular, Western Digital, solid state drive (SSD)