In this series of daily posts we are telling you all about our trip to China.
We will be there from January 8 to January 25 2019 . Our trip starts with a 3-day visit of our Electronics manufacturer in Shenzhen, followed by two weeks at our assembly plant in Foshan.
DAY 1 — January 9
After 15 hours of travel and a stressful layover in Beijing, we safely arrived in Shenzhen. We were picked up at the airport by Martin, the Business Development Manager of our Electronics Manufacturer. He decided to show us what Shenzhen has in store (literally and figuratively) by bringing us to Huaqiangbei, where you can literally buy chips, resistors, connectors, LEDs, whatever you want, on a market. This area is also called China’s Silicon Valley of Hardware.
Tomorrow, the real work begins.
DAY 2 — January 10
We started the day with a short tour of the factory where our electronics are being produced.
After the usual visual inspection, we did the bring-up of the boards and no issues were detected. We connected a loudspeaker to the main PCBA, turned it on and magic: we got some audio. It couldn’t have gone any smoother :)
We spent the rest of the day working on the Test Tool which allows us to program the different modules present on the boards and run the Quality Checks. There will be one Test Tool at our Electronics Manufacturer, so they can do an Outgoing Quality check (OQC). The same Test Tool will also be at our Assembly Manufacturer in Foshan for an Incoming Quality check (IQC). That way we can check if boards are damaged during the transport from Shenzhen to Foshan.
DAY 3—January 11
This morning we finished working on the Test Tool and managed to run the basic voltage tests on the main PCBA. We also discussed the next steps in the manufacturing process with Martin and Justin, the electronics engineer in charge of our project. Right after lunch we left Shenzhen and headed to Foshan.
The trip is a smooth sailing so far :)
After a 3 hour drive we arrived at the assembly plant of AMS in Foshan. We had a quick tour of the factory and discussed a plan of action for the Pilot Build starting next Monday.
Tune in again on Monday when we’ll tell you more about assembly!
Day 6 — January 14
Today we spent most of our time doing a dry run of the Satellite assembly. All the different parts, jigs, assembly steps, and quality checks were looked at one by one with scrutiny. The goal was to validate the assumptions that were made by the team here in China about how to best assemble the speakers, and find ways to make the process more efficient when needed.
We drew up a list of all the items that were missing and all the processes that could be improved, and we’ll spend a lot of time in the coming two weeks streamlining the assembly procedure for the Satellite. We will, of course, do the same exercise for the Subwoofer.
We were also joined by Reza from AMS’ Amsterdam office. Reza is a mechanical engineer and he has been responsible for the Design for Manufacturing of our sound system. He will stay in China until January 26 to help us with the Pilot Build.
Day 7— January 15
We spent the day in a meeting room, and we went through all the issues that were detected during the dry run of the Satellite assembly yesterday. We thought about different ways to make the assembly more efficient, modified some existing parts, and ordered new ones when needed.
We also looked at the glueing jigs which are one of the most critical parts of the assembly. Airtightness is of the utmost importance!
We’ve also encountered our first substantial issue: we ran the NFC tap-to-pair test on the 60 lids that will be used in the Satellite assembly next week, and we had a relatively high scrap rate. We researched the issue and found out that the problem comes from a small cavity in the Satellite mould. Next Monday we will drive to the place where the plastics are made in order to discuss a solution with the mould maker.
Tomorrow we will go through the process we went through the last couple of days, only this time with the Subwoofer.
Day 8— January 16
This morning saw the completion of the dry run of the Subwoofer. Although it consists of more parts, the Subwoofer assembly is relatively simple compared to the Satellite assembly.
This dry run went without surprises, and we barely had any comments to give to the engineers and operators. That being said, we gave special attention to the glueing of the body, which is even more critical in this assembly because the Subwoofer driver moves a lot more air than the Satellite drivers.
In the afternoon we went through all the different parts which make up the packaging: the inlay, the power supplies, the protective foam, the manual, etc. We won’t be sharing any pictures of this because we want to keep the unboxing experience a surprise :)
Day 9— January 17
Today we looked a critical part of the Satellite assembly: the potting process of the capacitive touch board (PCB3). PCB3 has given AMS and us a lot of headaches in the last couple of years.
PCB3 is the capacitive touch board that lets you play, pause, and control the volume of your music. It also hosts the NFC chip which allows you to pair your smartphone to the speaker.
PCB3 sits between two layers of plastic. This process is called overmoulding. Basically, the first half of the Satellite is made thanks to the plastic injection, and PCB3 is glued. Then the half is put in a mould again, which covers the PCB3 with a soft plastic called TPU. The final part after overmoulding can be seen in Day 6 (bottom left picture).
Before the potting process was included as a step in the assembly, the pressure in the mould was so massive that PCB3 would literally break. Now, the potting material closes the cavity between PCB3 and the plastic and provides good support during the overmoulding process.
Day 10— January 18
What makes kien so unique?
One could argue that it’s the software and hardware that give our sound system its intelligence. Others might say that its design makes kien stand out.
While these statements might both be true, we can all agree that the audio drivers are one, if not the most essential parts of a sound system. After all, without its drivers, our speaker system would make no sound, and we’d be left with a pretty, smart, but completely silent device :)
So let’s talk about the drivers. The drivers used in our system are all custom made. What that means is that each driver (subwoofer, midrange, and tweeter) have been designed to fit the shape, volume, and acoustic requirements of the Subwoofer and Satellite.
Each and every driver is tested on the production line, to ensure a consistent sound quality coming from every speaker. This is done the following way: first, a sample of each driver which is taken as a reference. These 3 drivers are the so-called golden samples. Then each driver’s audio characteristics are tested and compared to the characteristics of their respective golden sample. If a driver is within an acceptable tolerance, then it’s approved and can be put into a product. If not, it’s returned to the driver supplier.
Day 13 — January 21
As we discussed last week (Day 7), we encountered an issue with the overmoulding of one of the halves of the Satellite; the one that contains the capacitive touch and NFC PCBA.
Today we spent over 6 hours in the car to go to our mould manufacturer in Shenzhen. The mould team of AMS had already worked on a solution to our issue: it consists of a simple square rod that can fill up the cavity responsible for the breakage of our PCBA. We tested this new solution with 10 Satellites and got a 100% success rate.
Day 14 — January 22
Today was a very special one! We set up the assembly line exactly as it will be for the mass production, in order to assemble the first 10 kien Satellite speakers.
We slowly went through every step until the most exciting one: the glueing of the two halves of the Satellite, using a glue robot.
After the robot is done, the speaker can be closed and put in the jig for a few minutes, so that the glue can cure.
Day 15 — January 23
10 Satellites were assembled today. Production is slowly ramping up!
All assembly steps are repeated, timed, and photographed. With each new Satellite that gets assembled, the operator gets more and more familiar with the way the parts are connected, screwed, and glued together.
A Quality Control specialist (yellow vest) came by to observe the assembly. She even assembled a speaker herself, to get a better understanding of how the product is put together.
Day 16 — January 24
Today was our last day at the factory. In the morning, we build ten subwoofers on the assembly line, then we packed them up and got them ready to be shipped to the Netherlands, together with the Satellites that we assembled on Day 15.
We used most of the afternoon meeting with all the people involved in the project and wrap things up. We drew up a list of all the topics that had to be worked on by the team here in China after the Chinese new year, which starts on January 26.
Wrap up — January 28
After spending almost three weeks in China, we’re back at the office in Rotterdam, and we’re starting to appreciate how much we learned during this trip.
It has been an incredible journey. Seeing your product come to life in the hands of the operators is definitely amongst the best moments a hardware company can experience. We learned a lot about our own product, but also about the dynamics of an assembly factory in China. We will for sure be putting all the insight we learned these last few weeks into the design of our new products.
Thanks again for reading along. We hope that you’ve enjoyed this series of daily posts as much as we’ve enjoyed writing them!
We’ll talk to you very soon.
Want to know more about kien? Visit our website.
