Assessment of grinding machine performance in substrate hard disc drive industry

Abstract

This cross-sectional study investigated the reciprocal relationship between productivity, capabilities and quality towards performance of grinding machine within a model which draws on the performance theory. Specifically, this study also examined the selection factor in productivity, capabilities, quality and performance of grinding machine based on employee’s position and experiences. This study utilized a probability sampling method in the forms of simple random sampling. The questionnaires were personally administered and collected from 146 employees working in one of the substrate hard disc plant (Seagate Technology, Johor). Secondary data was used to support the research result. Factor analysis has confirmed the appropriateness of the aggregation of the questionnaire items in each variable and the values of Cronbach alpha indicated that all the measures are reliable. The data analysis was used SPSS/PASW version 24. Statistical analysis techniques used in order to achieve objective of research are descriptive analysis, different test including t-test and ANOVA, the multiple regression analysis method. Based on different test, workers who had more than 20 years working experiences and non-executive staffs were more satisfied with productivity, quality, capabilities and performance of machine. From a practical data analysis perspective, the results from the current study indicated that productivity was significantly related to the performance of grinding machine. Among six items in productivity, it can be seen that machine should have emergency button system that easy to push during emergency case is the most important criteria in determining the performance of machine. The result indicated that there is significant associated between capabilities and performance. The main item which mostly contributed performance of machine is can be handling with 1 operator/3 machines or equipment simultaneous. Next, there is exists relationship between quality of operation with performance and the main items in quality criteria contributed is the specification machine can come out with better product quality up to 80 percent performance yield. Secondary recorded that yield performance of machine was lies between 99.38 percent until 99.60 percent. The percentage of handling defects was low; less than 1 percent (range between 0.072 to 0.085 percent). Overall, the main factor influenced performance of machine is capabilities factor