In short: In what may very well be a worrying signal of issues to come back, Chinese language cellphone maker Xiaomi has constructed a brand new autonomous good manufacturing facility that may not solely make 10 million handsets per yr, however may establish and proper manufacturing points whereas optimizing your complete course of.
Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun mentioned the 860,000-square-foot facility, situated within the Changping district on the northeast outskirts of Beijing, follows a lab-level good manufacturing facility inbuilt 2019 that produced round 1 million telephones per yr – it dealt with your complete manufacturing of the Xiaomi Combine Fold.
The brand new facility is described by Jun as a really automated mass-production manufacturing facility. It options 11 manufacturing strains, capable of produce the corporate’s upcoming flagship MIX Fold 4 and the MIX Flip telephones at a continuing fee of 1 each few seconds.
Let me know within the feedback what you are most interested by this Xiaomi Sensible Manufacturing facility. pic.twitter.com/5TU5ts9aMS
– Lei Jun (@leijun) July 8, 2024
The manufacturing facility can function 24 hours a day with out folks on the ground, writes Gizmochina, although the video reveals a handful of individuals in what Jun calls the Warfare Room, monitoring the Xiaomi Hyper IMP (Clever Manufacturing Platform).
These kind of 24/7 factories aren’t new, however Xiaomi’s facility additional reduces the necessity for human employees through the use of AI to establish and remedy any points that will seem throughout manufacturing.
In response to a Weibo publish (through New Atlas), the IMP is ready to enhance course of flows, make selections, and execute instructions. It may additionally notice full-scenario digital administration, from the procurement of uncooked supplies to supply. All of which makes it a manufacturing facility that is capable of “evolve” itself, in response to the publish.
Step into the guts of our manufacturing facility, the “Warfare Room”. Our Xiaomi Hyper IMP (Clever Manufacturing Platform) is the mind of the operations, proactively fixing points and optimizing manufacturing.ð pic.twitter.com/6ZWhOm5wle
– Lei Jun (@leijun) July 9, 2024
Robots have been changing manufacturing facility employees for a few a long time now; one of many largest cuts got here in 2016 when Foxconn lowered its workforce by 60,000 by swapping them out for unpaid machines that toil 24/7. However Xiaomi’s good manufacturing facility takes automation to the acute by doubtlessly changing those that would diagnose or repair issues with the manufacturing and assist optimize processes.
It isn’t simply manufacturing vegetation the place robots are taking human jobs. Amazon has lately began ramping up the usage of autonomous machines in its success facilities and warehouses, from 350,000 robots in 2021 to greater than 750,000 by June 2023. In October final yr, the tech big introduced Digit, a 5-foot 9-inch 143-pound robotic from Agility Robotics, was being deployed to warehouses. The 2-legged machine can stroll ahead, backward, and sideways; squat and bend; and transfer, grasp, and deal with objects utilizing its arm/hand-like clasps. It may imitate nearly every thing {that a} human can do, with no need to carry out bodily capabilities or take day off because of stress.
