Thank You, Heatwave!... A Factory That Produces One Fan Every 19 Seconds [Shinil Electronics Cheonan Factory Report]

Shinil Electronics Leads Domestic Fan Market with 40% Share
Produces 4,500 Fans Daily... One Fan Every 19 Seconds
Over 600 Fan Models... Assembly Varies, Manual Work Instead of Automation
Diverse Small-Batch Production, Shinil's 63 Years of Competitiveness for Consumer Satisfaction

10% of Workforce Dedicated to Quality Control... Defect Rate Below 1% Last Year
Ranked No.1 in Fan Category of Korea Quality Satisfaction Index (KS-QEI) for 16 Consecutive Years
Sales Expected to Increase 20% This Year Due to Record Heat
New Logistics Warehouse to Open in September to Handle Volume

Employees are manually assembling products on the first-floor production line at Shinil Electronics Cheonan Factory in Chungnam./Cheonan=Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwak Minjae] On days of unprecedented heatwaves, the fan production lines were running nonstop. Shinil Electronics holds a 40% market share in the domestic fan market, ranking first in South Korea. At the Shinil Electronics factory in Cheonan, Chungnam Province (covering 35,000㎡), visited at the end of last month, 4,500 fans are produced daily?one fan every 19 seconds.

The fan factory is busiest around this time of year. Although the factory is automated, the final assembly process is done manually by employees. About thirty workers standing beside the conveyor belt, wearing anti-static gloves, are busy assembling over 100 parts including the main body, injection-molded components, pressed steel plates, and electrical circuits. After assembling the body, the head part where the motor is installed is separately made and then combined to complete the fan.

600 Types of Fans... Multi-Product Small Batch Production is the Trend Nowadays

There is a reason Shinil Electronics insists on manual assembly processes. Because they produce a wide variety of products in small quantities, they must reflect customers' desired designs and specifications in real-time. Although the products may look similar at first glance, Shinil Electronics offers about 600 types of fans, including floor models, ceiling fans, industrial fans, and BLDC (Brushless DC motor) fans. Even when using the same motor, changing a single part such as the color of the main body or the chrome decoration on the lower metal part alters the assembly method, making manual assembly advantageous. Offering diverse products has been a tradition and competitive edge that Shinil Electronics has maintained for 63 years since its founding.

At the production line of Shinil Electronics Cheonan Plant in Chungnam, an employee is assembling products using a power tool. / Cheonan - Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

Each distribution channel demands different fan models. On the first floor of the factory, the left production line was making ceiling fans in the morning but switched to producing BLDC motor fans in the afternoon. An air compressor is used to assemble the relatively heavy ceiling fans, while electric tools and plastic parts are used for BLDC fan production. Because equipment and parts must be replaced every time the process changes, human hands are necessary. Production Manager Lee Byungki said, "Shinil flexibly operates manual assembly processes despite the costs to quickly respond to consumer preferences by distribution channel and to release products with various designs and specifications to the market in real-time."

Employees are conducting operational inspections of products in the mid-inspection room of the production line at Shinil Electronics Cheonan Factory in Chungnam./Cheonan=Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

The completed fans are sent to gray container-like intermediate inspection rooms, two per production line, for quality checks. Employees plug in the finished fans and test for short circuits where current might leak outside using a red insulation resistance tester. If current leaks, consumer safety could be compromised. Employees meticulously press buttons for timer, rotation, and wind strength (strong, medium, weak) with clicking sounds to test product functions. After passing the visual inspection, the finished products are boxed and packaged.

Defect Rate Below 1%... Sales Expected to Increase 25% Due to Record Heat

Some packaged fans are sent to the second-floor performance inspection room for an additional check. There, quality control staff remove the packaged products, attach a red sticker to the front of the fan head, and measure the blade rotation speed (rpm) by reflecting light with a tachometer. Typically, 1200 rpm indicates optimal performance at high wind speed. Next, the fan undergoes vibration testing to check if the shaking exceeds 0.5 cm, and durability testing to ensure no issues when moving the product neck up and down. Finally, to confirm the product will not be damaged by shocks during delivery, a drop test is conducted by dropping the boxed fan from a height of 75 cm onto the floor 10 times. Passing all these steps completes the testing process.

A quality control team employee is measuring the rotation speed of the blades with a tachometer on the second floor performance inspection room of Shinil Electronics Cheonan Factory. / Cheonan = Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

Thanks to rigorous quality control, Shinil Electronics has maintained the No. 1 position in the Korean Quality Satisfaction Index (KS-QEI) for fans for 16 consecutive years since being certified by the Korea Standards Association in 2006. In 2015, the company was inducted into the "Korean Quality Satisfaction Index Hall of Fame," an honor held by only nine companies across all industries in South Korea. Manager Lee said, "Fans assembled by hand must undergo another round of quality testing by employees," adding, "As much as 10% of the total production workforce is dedicated to quality control, and as a result, Shinil's fan defect rate was below 1% last year."

Products are being shipped from the logistics warehouse at Shinil Electronics Cheonan Plant in Chungnam./Cheonan=Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

Outside the logistics warehouse in the sweltering heat, piles of boxed fans are stacked in front of 5-ton cargo trucks. Normally, fan production ends by late July, but due to the expected late heatwave this year, additional production will continue into August. Last year’s fan sales were 1.8 million units, and this year the company aims to increase sales by about 20% to over 2 million units. The company expects sales revenue to grow by approximately 25% from last year’s 197 billion KRW. CEO Jung Yunseok of Shinil Electronics said, "High-end wireless BLDC fans sold 1.8 billion KRW worth in just two hours on home shopping, and the proportion of large product categories like air circulators is expanding, making the existing logistics warehouse unable to handle the volume," adding, "We plan to complete a new 10,000㎡ logistics warehouse by the end of September this year."

Cheonan, Chungnam = Reporter Kwak Minjae