Applying Process Knowledge for Yield Variation Reduction: A Longitudinal Field Study*
在一家机电马达组装厂开展纵向实地研究，考察生产工作团队如何通过应用过程知识来降低产量变异，发现三条生产线上的产量变异显著减少，且不同策略导致不同结果。
ABSTRACT The widespread recognition of the detrimental effects of high yield variation in advanced manufacturing technology settings, both in terms of cost and management of production processes, underscores the need to develop effective strategies for reducing yield variation. In this article, we report the findings of a longitudinal field study in an electromechanical motor assembly plant where we examined how the application of process knowledge by production work teams can reduce yield variation. We propose and provide an operationalizion of a strategy to identify the sequence of particular types of actions—actions to control the mean followed by actions to control the variance—that work teams should pursue over time to apply process knowledge for reducing yield variation. The results of our empirical analysis show that yield variation was significantly reduced on three of the four production lines at the manufacturing plant that served as our research site. Differences in strategies for applying process knowledge help explain the different results on each of the production lines.