Operations Management in Tai Sin Electric Limited

This report investigates the business strategies and product development process of Tai Sin Electric Limited, a leading power cable manufacturer company in the world. It discusses the competitive strategies, modular design, internal and external failures, and process strategy of the company.

Running head: OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................3
Competitive Strategies:..............................................................................................................3
Modular design / robust design:.................................................................................................4
Internal failures and external failures:........................................................................................4
Process strategy:.........................................................................................................................5
Conclusion:................................................................................................................................7
Reference list:.............................................................................................................................8

OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
Introduction:
In this particular report, an investigation is performed about an electrical or
electronics product manufacturer company’s business strategies, product development
process in response to the four questions as specified below. Here, the chosen manufacturer
company is Tai Sin Electric Limited which manufactures different types of electric cables in
Singapore and distributes its products through various international distributors spread across
Brunei, Indonesia, Myanmar and Thailand (Taisin.com.sg 2018). Tai Sin Electric Limited is
chosen as this is one of the leading power cable manufacturer company in the world and
starting from the year 1980 it had grown progressively and got listed in the Stock Exchange
of Singapore Catalist.
Competitive Strategies:
Now, to survive in the competitive market, Tai Sin Electric developed some strategies
to increase the sales in the world market. The other cable manufacturer companies in
Singapore are Keystone Cable Pte Ltd, Wilson Cables, Singapore Cables Manufacturers and
many more. Hence, the competition of marketing of Tai Sin products is huge, and as the
company is over 35 years old, the brand of Tai Sin is more or less known to worldwide users.
Hence, the company follows the Cost-Leadership marketing strategy which is the appropriate
strategy to achieve the lowest possible production and lowest distribution cost to sell the
products at a low price than others to attract more customers. The greatest benefit of this
strategy is that after slightly increasing the price of the product the demand of the product
does not get much affected as the regular customer do not want to shift their choices as they
are satisfied with the product for many years (Cusumano, Kahl and Suarez 2015). Hence, this
strategy gives Tai Sin the benefit of attracting new buyers of its product and at the same time
maintaining the regular customers.

OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
Modular design / robust design:
Tai Sin Electric Limited manufactures different types of cables starting from low
voltage power cables, instrumentation and control cables, single core cables, medium voltage
cables, fire resistant cables, offshore and marine cables and customized cables. Now, the
modular design is the technique by which a system can be subdivided into several parts
known as modules and those modules can be made independently and then can be used in
different systems. Now, any type of electric cables consists of two conducting
wires(minimum) and an outer protective jacket. In the case of medium and high voltage
power cables, there is another protection of insulating sheaths around the conducting wires
(West, Ghimire and Axinn 2015). Hence, these three parts of the cable are made
independently in Tai Sin manufacturing plants and then combined together to make different
types of cables based on the specifications. The electrical conductors are made of copper, and
the outer jackets or the insulating sheaths are made of synthetic polymers.
Internal failures and external failures:
The internal failures are the failures that are discovered in the company before the
product is delivered to the customer. Hence, the internal failures that can occur in the
company, Tai Sin are electric waste material, Scrap material, rectification of production. If
some company orders a specific number of electric cables of specific types, and somehow the
information received to Tai Sin gets wrong due to human errors or machine error (in case
ordered through online) then overproduction or unnecessary production happens and this
goes to waste when the right information is obtained (Khan and Beg 2014). If the electric
cables that have been produced are not working properly at the time of testing, then the
product goes to waste as these can’t be recovered with modifications and need to go through
a total recycling process.

OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
Now, external failures are the failures that cannot be detected until the product reaches to the
customers and reported by them as the design quality standards are not met. Tai Sin delivers
the product through various distributors, and the cable may be damaged at the time of
distribution. Sometimes warranty claims are made by the customers when the electric cables
become faulty before the given warranty period. These are the common external failure costs
that can occur for Tai Sin electric.
Process strategy:
Now, in Tai Sin, the electric cables are made in the following procedure that is
followed by many companies across the globe. The steps include making conductors,
insulation, screen if it is required, assembly of products, inner covering formation, armouring
and finally making the outer sheath (Al-Ali et al. 2017).
Now, a copper or aluminium conductor is generally used for high to low voltage cables, and
the first manufacturing process of the conductor is wire-drawing. Wire-drawing is the method
by which the diameter of the copper wire is gradually reduced to a final diameter that
increases the ductility and conductivity and then the skin effect is decreased. Then those
copper wires are grouped to make strands. At the time of wiring, the copper wires of different
sizes are met based on the required specifications. In the next step which is known as
insulation is done to prevent leakages of electric current and PVC, XLPE, EPR is some of the
insulating materials. In the next step phase wiring is done which is grouping some of the
insulated conductors in order to make a type of multicore cable in the assembly machines.
Then in the next phase which is known as screening, the external signals are insulted which
may interfere with the cable (Thue 2016). Then in the next step, the armouring is done in
order to protect the cables from outside damages. The armour is generally made from
aluminium or steel, and that can come from the metal strips, braids or wires. Then the outer

OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
sheath which protects the cable from external elements that can change the properties of the
cable like moisture is generally made from thermoplastic or thermosetting plastic material.
Finally, using the specific components and combining them in an appropriate way the low
voltage or high voltage or any other type of cable is made.
Fig: Low voltage power cable of Tai Sin Electric
Source: (Taisin.com.sg 2018)
Fig: Medium voltage power cable of Tai Sin Electric
Source: (Taisin.com.sg 2018)

OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
Conclusion:
Hence, an electrical manufacturing company known as Tai Sin Electric Limited has
been identified for its brand popularity in different industries across the globe and its products
which are different types cables used in different purposes in the industry are analysed. The
constructional details, manufacturing process, probable internal and external failure of the
products and the strategy for marketing of the product has also been discussed with proper
research.

OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
Reference list:
Al-Ali, A., Abdul-Hafiz, Y., MacNeish III, W.J. and Forrest, K., Masimo Corp, 2017.
Automated assembly sensor cable. U.S. Patent 9,697,928.
Cusumano, M.A., Kahl, S.J. and Suarez, F.F., 2015. Services, industry evolution, and the
competitive strategies of product firms. Strategic management journal, 36(4), pp.559-575.
Khan, P.M. and Beg, M.M., 2014. Measuring Cost of Quality (CoQ) on SDLC Projects is
indispensible for effective software quality assurance. arXiv preprint arXiv:1405.4824.
Taisin.com.sg. (2018). Low Voltage Power Cables & Wires | Tai Sin Electric Ltd | Cable
Manufacturing Plant Singapore. [online] Available at:
http://www.taisin.com.sg/product_uri/power-control-instrumentation-cables/low-voltage-
power-cables-and-wires/ [Accessed 20 Jul. 2018].
Thue, W.A., 2016. Electrical power cable engineering. CRC Press.
West, B.T., Ghimire, D. and Axinn, W.G., 2015. Evaluating a modular design approach to
collecting survey data using text messages. In Survey research methods (Vol. 9, No. 2, p.
111). NIH Public Access.