Inside Elitegroup Computer Systems: From Taipei to Shen Zhen
by Kristopher Kubicki on October 4, 2003 12:39 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
E-Trend: Factory #26
From the #26 factory roof, we can practically throw a stone at the #20 building we were just in. The part you can’t see is the steel and stone wall around the building we were in. We mentioned earlier that factory #26, E-Trend, was an experimental facility where the Chinese government allowed ECS Taiwan to own a factory on Chinese soil. Obviously, things like security checkpoints and 7-foot high walls are some of the terms that go along with that deal!
Similar to the motherboard assembly line, we got to see a laptop assembled in less than 5 minutes as it cruised down one of the assembly lines. As you will see, the entire laptop is assembled and tested, even if only the components or barebones laptop is the desired product. ECS reported in their last quarter that 47% of their profits came from laptop sales, rather than motherboard. While at the factory, we saw more than 7 completely different types of laptops; so it is clear that ECS is an even bigger OEM of laptops than they let on to be.
Here, a worker attaches circuitry for the LCD panel.
When you build 30 or 40 laptops an hour, per assembly line, using a blaster system to copy the contents of one hard drive onto 15 others saves a lot of time. The E-trend facility had about 20 of these stations on the assembly floor.
We will return to this part of the factory in a bit. Right now, we will head over to the QA floor. As it is easy to see, this is no small operation. Each of these systems (shown below) will run for 4 hours of high load before being boxed up. The particular OEM client ordered a few thousand components. ECS is capable of testing 40 racks of these machines, each with 15 units on each rack. Since this factory also works on two shifts, that’s about 1200 systems per day from this floor.
Click to enlarge.
E-Trend uses an identical setup for laptops, with 15 units per rack. 400 laptops running 3DMark2001 at the same time has an unusual, but calming, sound to it.
We found a bad laptop in the fray. ECS wouldn’t let me take it home.
Click to enlarge.
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Sengir - Thursday, April 22, 2004 - link
They need to rework their Quality Control policies.. and pay more to their workers.As I stated in a different article.
I am a Service Technician with a large electronics retailer on the West coast.
ECS is our #1 returned motherboard/computer (Great Quality brand).
If you plan on buying or building a computer system, stay away from ECS and Great Quality.
davemc759 - Sunday, March 21, 2004 - link
To compare and contrast you may wish to look athttp://www.legitreviews.com/Reviews/corsair_trip_1...
Being a lifer in the electronics manufacturing industry in the US, stories like these really bring home just how volatile the work situation really is. If the mainstay of economic stability is gauged by productivity, it would appear China has more working in it's favor than simply cheap labor.
Rumpltzer - Tuesday, November 4, 2003 - link
NMAnonymous User - Friday, October 24, 2003 - link
The people who say ECS make crap Boards should read more carefully. ECS makes also mbs for Shuttle and Abit!Anonymous User - Thursday, October 9, 2003 - link
Interesting article. I use an ECS board in mysystem 'cause by American standards I'm poor.
It works fine and the slight bugs that seem to be
there are most likely software related....
Anonymous User - Thursday, October 9, 2003 - link
Love the article, very insightful.Anonymous User - Thursday, October 9, 2003 - link
Free room and board.Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 8, 2003 - link
I have three ECS board based machines (including one dual PIII) and one PC-Chips board machine. They are running well. I am doing a lot of IT development and run some server apps on them. Seems to me they are even better than the equivalent HP PCs at work.Anonymous User - Tuesday, October 7, 2003 - link
Every country has its way to develop , China has it too. and China is on its way now. China will become stronger and stronger, look back american , you can see there are so many chinese in your university, they are working hard too. china become strong is not just because of cheap labour.Anonymous User - Monday, October 6, 2003 - link
I'd really enjoy this story and all of the valuable information from this auther. I do further believe that all American should work harder or appeciate the shear fact that we live in a very VERY good enviroment. I appeciate life more when I do see what are the living condition and (average) standard of living is so much different in China/India or even the very mondernized Taiwan.I TOTALLY AGREE WITH THIS COMMENT!! Thank you!!
J.S.