Nah. They are killing it because of amazing exclusives. That's all.
Aha, color me confused. Which would be those?
Playstation's secret weapon: a nearly all-automated factory
91–100 of 284 posts
Re: Playstation's secret weapon: a nearly all-automated factory
#92"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…
Controls engineer here - no, that's pretty normal. I'm accustomed to automotive work, but I believe the electronics assembly lines are similar. The flexible materials handling stuff (connecting flat flex cables? Applying Kapton tape?) is indeed super impressive, but the timing is ordinary. A sizeable 6-axis robot like those used here has a minimum cycle time of a second or two for the simplest possible "move in, plac…
Thanks for your insight. Out of curiosity, why don't more of such production lines have dedicated machines that each do one small/simple action and then send it to the next one. It seems many seem to deploy general purpose robots that mimic human hand/arm features (that I would imagine have a higher latency cost in terms of controlling,positioning,etc). Is it so that you can manufacture multiple products with different assembly steps?
I work in automation, but of biological processes (vaccines) and we have the same production issues with bottlenecks/capacity planning/down-time mitigation, etc.
Re: Playstation's secret weapon: a nearly all-automated factory
#93If 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…
I watched How It's Made with my kids for a good number of years, and I was just amazed that the parts that were automated worked as well as they did. It made manufacturing look really complicated and that human hands were the most important part of the assembly line.
Re: Playstation's secret weapon: a nearly all-automated factory
#94This 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).
In fact China drives automation these days. And its speeding up everywhere.
Re: Playstation's secret weapon: a nearly all-automated factory
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Fluids/moltens are a nightmare.
Re: Playstation's secret weapon: a nearly all-automated factory
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?
Cleaning out the dust makes a massive difference. The PS4 actually allows easy access to the fans and vents by popping off the top plastic without voiding the warranty.
Re: Playstation's secret weapon: a nearly all-automated factory
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's kind of implied by the images. But if only two completed units come out the end every minute (regardless of how long it takes an individual unit to be assembled), that does seem a little underwhelming. There has to be more manufacturing lines than just this one to move millions of PS4s every year. 525,600 minutes per year * 2 units/minute = 1,051,200 units per year (assuming 100% uptime) There has to be at lea…
32 robots on the line. If each is always doing its job on a unit(because it's a pipeline), and a unit gets all 32 pieces done in 30 seconds, then each robot is spending about a second on its unit. That means a completed unit every second.
I've programmed ABB, Epson, Denso, and Fanuc 6 axis robots (no Mitsubishis, but I've seen a few) and there's no way that those robots are running at 1-second cycle times. Maybe with a delta or SCARA, but just moving 200mm and back with the inertia of the robot alone will take you on the order of a second.
It's almost certainly 30 seconds part-to-part, taking 16 minutes (minus 30 seconds for each of the stations that have two or more robots) from the start to the end of the line. It's not particularly important how long it takes from the start to the end of the line, and they'd be unlikely to share that trivia with a journalist - but part-to-part cycle time is important.
If the TAKT time demanded a completed unit every second, they'd run multiple lines.
Re: Playstation's secret weapon: a nearly all-automated factory
#98"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…
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Re: Playstation's secret weapon: a nearly all-automated factory
#99Also the origin story for the Portal games.
Re: Playstation's secret weapon: a nearly all-automated factory
#100This 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.
A motor company I know of makes their small-runs, specialty, and high performance motors in Japan and the rest in Indonesia. However they recently switched to a fully automated, lights-off factory in Japan to make their new product lines.