A visit to Sram
Sram has been headquartered in Taichung, the bicycle capital of Taiwan and probably the whole world, for 29 years. The factory has a somewhat confusing layout, as over 17 buildings have been added in these almost three decades. The factory covers an area of around 42,000 square meters.
Sram employs 2122 people in Taiwan; the single-chainring pioneer has a total of 3102 Sram employees worldwide at 18 locations in nine countries. The management team at the Taichung Factory consists almost exclusively of Taiwanese, with managers from the USA or Europe being the exception.When asked about the growth that Sram is experiencing due to innovations such as 1x or wireless shifting, Bob Chen, General Manager Sram Asia and Engineering Manager, says: "We have been able to increase production through efficiency, not automation". An important component of this efficiency is the training of employees on site, with the training content focusing on safety, quality assurance and improvement.
There are almost no robots in Sram's Taichung Factory. "Robots are good for mass production. But bad for flexibility," says Joao Pires, Director of Manufacturing at Sram Asia. And it is precisely this flexibility that is the key to improvements. "If you want to change a product or production, this results in large investments in robotics. We want to be fast, flexible and innovative. That's why we use very few robots and rely on small, adaptable assembly units," says Pires.
In addition to the continuous training of the employees who manufacture Sram parts, Shimano's main competitor in Taichung also relies on the team's wealth of ideas and experience. "We have around 1,500 employees here in production. If each of them has an idea for improvement, we have 1,500 ideas for improvement. That's very different to when improvement is just a management issue. If you only have a few managers trying to make improvements, it can never have the same effect," says Pires.
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Note: This content has been automatically translated from German. Please report any incorrect translations.