The study is aimed at improving productivity and quality, increasing revenue and reducing rejection cost of the manual component
insertion (MCI) lines in a printed circuit assembly (PCA) factory. Subjective assessment (through questionnaire), direct observation
method, and archival data were used. Live experiments were conducted on production lines. Eleven problems were identified, i.e., long
search for materials from the stores, unproductive manual component counting, obstructions during insertions, component fall-off while
the PCA board was traveling on a U-shaped conveyor, etc. Interventions were made to rectify the problems, i.e., to have only one central
store to eliminate confusion of the materials’ whereabouts, use weighing scale for component counting, modify the MCI sequence and
the bin arrangements to avoid obstructions, and use straight conveyor to reduce handling. As a result, there was a tremendous increase in
productivity and yearly revenue (US$4,223,736) and a huge reduction in defects and yearly rejection costs (US$956,136).