Nah. They are killing it because of amazing exclusives. That's all.
Playstation's secret weapon: a nearly all-automated factory
71–80 of 284 posts
Re: Playstation's secret weapon: a nearly all-automated factory
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Really. A dot of hot glue to hold a cable down must be easier.
All the manufacturing engineers I've talked to hate doing fluid dispense. Glue is in a class all its own because if you take the line down it tends to cure in the dispenser or nozzle.
Re: Playstation's secret weapon: a nearly all-automated factory
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Really. A dot of hot glue to hold a cable down must be easier.
The PS4 officially supports replacing the internal hard drive, and that's not even getting into the question of repairs
Re: Playstation's secret weapon: a nearly all-automated factory
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Maybe part of the success is in pre-packaging the wire and ribbon to act predictably, similar to how ribbons of surface mount components come on uniform tape reels instead of loosely in containers. You can crease or bend things to be predisposed to movement in certain directions.
Re: Playstation's secret weapon: a nearly all-automated factory
#75"The 31.4-meter line, completed in 2018, has the ability to churn out a new console every 30 seconds." That seems.... slow? I mean, I have no idea what I expected, but 2 a minute, is that really fast for this type of manufacturing? How does that compare to Xbox or maybe iPhone output? I'm sure 2 a minute is really impressive, but I started reading that thinking something like hundreds or thousands an hour, I guess I…
Journalist innumeracy. It's a pipeline. 30 seconds per build, but not 30 seconds between each console.
There's no way they can build an entire one in just 30 seconds. It probably takes longer than that just to package them.
Re: Playstation's secret weapon: a nearly all-automated factory
#76If you enjoy that you will probably also enjoy the fully-automated Valve Steam Controller assembly line (including video)[0]. [0]: https://www.theverge.com/2015/12/11/9890914/valves-steam-con...
Hah, they were even cheeky enough to put the Aperture logo on the robots
Re: Playstation's secret weapon: a nearly all-automated factory
#77This looks so amazing and I wasn't aware that Playstations are still manufactured in Sony's home country itself. I guess automation helps in keeping the manufacturing cost low. Now I am intrigued about what high selling electronic devices are manufactured in their home country itself and not by the ODMs/CMs in countries with cheap labour like China.
I have a feeling that automation slowed down in many sectors when China came "online". I think this cycle is coming to an end, and there is no comparable pool of labour anywhere in the world so that fully automated factories are going to be the next step (that wasn't technically possible in the early 90s but I think we now have the technology or very close to).
Re: Playstation's secret weapon: a nearly all-automated factory
#78If you enjoy that you will probably also enjoy the fully-automated Valve Steam Controller assembly line (including video)[0]. [0]: https://www.theverge.com/2015/12/11/9890914/valves-steam-con...
This is a fantastic video, extremely well done in my opinion. I remember fanatically watching "How It's Made", in that show they focused on more run of the mill assembly lines for generic plastic things and usually there was a ton of labor involved. The video linked here was really the first time I saw this level of automation and my jaw nearly hit the floor, the technology industry has created some incredible feats…
Very few high end factories would allow some random journalists to poke around. Some candle factory is a different story I suppose. But you are right,I'd love them to visit some more modern shops.
Re: Playstation's secret weapon: a nearly all-automated factory
#79Lots 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.
There is a interview of Elon Musk with MKBHD. He was precisely referring to this as being one of the issues when they were trying to automate the pipeline. The machines just couldn't plug a loose tube in its place. Maybe they should have consulted with Sony.
Re: Playstation's secret weapon: a nearly all-automated factory
#80God 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…
> it has to be the peak of this class of machine. I'm sure phones had better GPUs 3-4 years ago than the PS4, and more RAM When i enter the notification quick tab it takes 30-40 seconds to show the message I've received, then another 10-15 to accept it. Currently one single game, COD:MW consumes the entirety of the space on the device. From launch it wasn't ever going to be enough. You need to keep space free because…
> I'm sure phones had better GPUs 3-4 years ago than the PS4, and more RAM
Means nothing though, where is the software? These supposedly dated and under-powered machines are still where the production of some of humanities not only most ambitious art of the last 100 years but most profitable art is being produced.