human-free and fully automated

This week, Samsung struck with the presentation of the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6, its new foldable phones that represent the new benchmark in the sector. However, Samsung does not lack competition in this sector, and its main competitors already offer, or will offer, very interesting alternatives, many of which come from China.

Today we saw HONOR’s answer to Samsung, with a new, even thinner foldable phone; and it’s not the only brand ready to take on Samsung’s challenge. Xiaomi will soon announce its new foldable phones, and its CEO, Lei Jun, has advanced his bet with a mind-blowing announcement: a large, fully automated factory.

The new facility spans 80,000 square meters and is located in the Changping district on the outskirts of Beijing; but it’s not their size that’s really surprising, but what they contain inside: fully automated machines to make foldable cell phones.

And when we say “fully automated,” we mean it; Lei Jun assumes that “100% of key processes are automatic” in the 11 available production lines. This is no small feat, considering that the company had to develop a specific production process and its own machine control software to achieve it.

Such a project did not come out of nothing. In reality, these are the second similar facilities: the first were built in 2019 with the aim of manufacturing the entire production of the Xiaomi Mix Fold, the foldable that managed to surpass the Galaxy Z Fold 4 with a thinner and lighter format. A million mobile phones came out of this factory, including all the Mix Folds.

The “brain” of the factory is called Xiaomi Hyper IMP (Intelligent Manufacturing Platform), an AI-based system capable of making decisions depending on the situation of the production lines, in order to improve flows. To do this, it takes into account the entire process, including obtaining the necessary raw materials, and is therefore able to “evolve” according to Xiaomi’s announcement.

Even though the production lines have no employees, that doesn’t mean there isn’t a single human soul in the factory; although they are all in what is called the “War Room”, where A small number of engineers are responsible for monitoring the operation of the IMP

Although these employees do not work directly in production, they must wear leak-proof clothing to maintain a “clean environment” throughout the factory.

The new Xiaomi factory will be responsible for producing the brand’s two new foldables: the Xiaomi Mix Fold 4 and the new Xiaomi Mix Flip, a “clamshell” type model that will be cheaper and smaller.