MANILA, Philippines – Production of precinct count optical scan or PCOS will start December 1 as the Commission on Elections (Comelec) assures that more than 80,000 of these machines will be delivered in time for the May 2010 elections.

Comelec IT consultant Renato Garcia told reporters on Wednesday that the 84-hectare Qisdi Suzhou factory in China would be able to ramp up production of 3,000 PCOS machines daily or nearly 83,000 units in less than two months.

Late last month, Smartmatic-Total Information Management (TIM), Comelec’s partner and supplier, announced it will transfer production of these machines from Taiwan to China to avoid delays.

Smartmatic-TIM has an agreement Jarltech and Qisdi to use Qisdi Suzhou's facilities for the assembly of PCOS machines and for sourcing of accessories such as metal plates and plastic casings, said Garcia, who was sent by Comelec along with two IT experts for ocular inspection of the Suzhou facility.

All major and sub-components and assembly technologies needed for PCOS production are readily available from the China facility thus “cutting the time needed for the transport of components and reducing setbacks that might cause project delay,” he said.

Other special components such as machine printer, scanner, LCD, sensors and power supplies - sourced separately from Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and US - were stocked months in advance to prevent production delays, added Garcia.

“The facility in Qisdi Suzhou has conducted two test runs for the assembly of the machines and based on this, they can produce one PCOS machine in ten minutes or about 3,000 in a day since they have four assembly lines for the project,” said Garcia.

Based on this capacity, Garcia said Qisdi has the capacity to produce and deliver to Comelec 42,000 machines by year-end and another 40,000 by January or early February.

“After the thanksgiving holiday, they would start production of the PCOS units from December 1 to January, without resting for the Christmas season. This is to meet the delivery of 82,200 machines,” added the official.

Aside from the test production runs,, the facility already produced the 120 PCOS units that will be used for holding nationwide training for poll officials and voters education starting December.

Using PCOS technology, the Comelec expects to declare winners in the next presidential polls within 48 hours.