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Playstation's secret weapon: a nearly all-automated factory

asia.nikkei.com

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Re: Playstation's secret weapon: a nearly all-automated factory

#61

Post by yladiz »

falcolas wrote: post #59
zbrozek wrote: post #45

Lots of folks here are talking about the latency and throughput, but nobody is amazed at what the robots are doing. Plugging in cables and putting down tape is fiddly and hard. I'm super impressed that they elected to automate those things based on cost merit. Massive kudos to the manufacturing engineers who managed to pull that off.

> Plugging in cables and putting down tape is fiddly and hard. Really? That's fascinating to me, given how accurate pick'n'place robots are. I would have thought they required similar capabilities.

I think it’s in part due to the pressure thresholds to put cables in, as too little pressure means the cable isn’t connected but too much could damage either the cable or thing it’s attaching to.

Re: Playstation's secret weapon: a nearly all-automated factory

#62

Post by duxup »

bowmessage wrote: post #46
duxup wrote: post #40

I've always wondered if you could automate a sort of standard assembly system with a certain amount of adjustments within some parameters (device dimensions, how things are connected)... and pump out any number of different electronics all on the same assembly line / factory using the same robots? Granted that probably already is a thing, or isn't for good reason.

You should look into pick-and-place machines and other awesome fab robots.

I will do that thank you!

Re: Playstation's secret weapon: a nearly all-automated factory

#63

Post by ashtonkem »

yladiz wrote: post #61
falcolas wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Plugging in cables and putting down tape is fiddly and hard. Really? That's fascinating to me, given how accurate pick'n'place robots are. I would have thought they required similar capabilities.

I think it’s in part due to the pressure thresholds to put cables in, as too little pressure means the cable isn’t connected but too much could damage either the cable or thing it’s attaching to.

Also chips are rigid bodies, while tape & ribbon is flexible and can push back and fold in unpredictable ways.

Re: Playstation's secret weapon: a nearly all-automated factory

#64

Post by d-sc »

falcolas wrote: post #59
zbrozek wrote: post #45

Lots of folks here are talking about the latency and throughput, but nobody is amazed at what the robots are doing. Plugging in cables and putting down tape is fiddly and hard. I'm super impressed that they elected to automate those things based on cost merit. Massive kudos to the manufacturing engineers who managed to pull that off.

> Plugging in cables and putting down tape is fiddly and hard. Really? That's fascinating to me, given how accurate pick'n'place robots are. I would have thought they required similar capabilities.

The robots are accurate, but the cables are not. Pick and place robots deal with uniformly sized parts that come in nice reels.

Cables and tape are not as uniform and have a tendency to move in random directions.

Re: Playstation's secret weapon: a nearly all-automated factory

#65

Post by zbrozek »

jccooper wrote: post #48
zbrozek wrote: post #45

Lots of folks here are talking about the latency and throughput, but nobody is amazed at what the robots are doing. Plugging in cables and putting down tape is fiddly and hard. I'm super impressed that they elected to automate those things based on cost merit. Massive kudos to the manufacturing engineers who managed to pull that off.

I'm surprised they didn't design out stuff like tape. Although perhaps they did and the article actually means handling things like ribbon cables, which is super impressive, as humans can barely handle those.

My guess is that they have flex cables (and not so much ribbons) and tape. Other electronic devices - including modern ones - that I've taken apart lately include quite a lot of both.

There are three flexes in just this one iFixit photo of one side of a Switch Lite: https://d3nevzfk7ii3be.cloudfront.net/igi/sbTwHYTEZOaWX3IQ.f...

Tape takes a number of forms. Holding down flexes to manage pull-out forces is pretty common. You can do that with traditional single-sided tape if you have the space on something to adhere it, but increasingly common is a double-sided tape on the flex itself. You peel off a liner and stick it down. It wouldn't surprise me if there are liner-less heat-activated tapes too, but I don't know of them myself. That's outside my domain.

Re: Playstation's secret weapon: a nearly all-automated factory

#66

Post by jariel »

Powerful example of operational innovation, and that there is so much untapped opportunity we are not leveraging in so many areas.

A company like Apple may not have the wherewithal or impetus to do something like this. When they need manufacturing, they are resigned to the traditional approach: China. Since labour is cheap there, and they just may not be thinking in these terms and may not have the wherewithal either ... the cost-effective solution invariable involves high labour intensity.

It may very well take factories like this to inspire other organisations to have the necessary 'Eureka!' moment to grasp that they too, might be better off 'fully automated' as well.

Note the eye-watering scale of the business however, quoted at nearly $100 Billion in sales, which is rather a lot of money indicating that it may take a product with a very long life cycle wherein there are considerable profits for this to be feasible.

Looking at this, one has to wonder why Western nations are not more keen to duplicate.

Re: Playstation's secret weapon: a nearly all-automated factory

#67

Post by ehnto »

jccooper wrote: post #48
zbrozek wrote: post #45

Lots of folks here are talking about the latency and throughput, but nobody is amazed at what the robots are doing. Plugging in cables and putting down tape is fiddly and hard. I'm super impressed that they elected to automate those things based on cost merit. Massive kudos to the manufacturing engineers who managed to pull that off.

I'm surprised they didn't design out stuff like tape. Although perhaps they did and the article actually means handling things like ribbon cables, which is super impressive, as humans can barely handle those.

I changed the board on my 3D printer today, the biggest hurdle was all the wire and plug manipulation. I play guitar, piano, type all day, you'd think I'd be good at it. It was like trying to pick up a grain of rice with two cucumbers.

Re: Playstation's secret weapon: a nearly all-automated factory

#68

Post by crtasm »

ThomW wrote: post #12
rusk wrote: post #11

God I love my PS4 - it has to be the peak of this class of machine. I can't imagine how it could be improved upon without going beyond the "box under the telly format". Incredible piece of machinery. I can't imagine the PS5 will be much more than an upgrade. In my opinion the second best console is the PS2. I love Nintendo but they're more like toys than hard core gaming and entertainment machines. PS2 up until PS4 w…

I can't imagine how it could be improved upon... When my PS4 Pro is playing stuff like TLOU2, it sounds like it's going to start hovering off my TV cabinet.

Does cleaning out any dust etc. that's built up inside make any difference?

Re: Playstation's secret weapon: a nearly all-automated factory

#70

Post by whywhywhywhy »

latch wrote: post #3

In case anyone misses the link in the article, they have a graphic-rich version: https://vdata.nikkei.com/en/newsgraphics/sony-playstation/ (The content is different, though both articles cover the same topic. A bit weird)

This article is crying out for GIFs, great pictures but you can't hype me up about how these robots move and not show me.
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