Scenes inside Hyundai’s Singapore EV plant resemble that of some distant utopian future. Spot, the robotic canine from Boston Dynamics walks round conducting high quality checks, autonomous robotic arms meticulously screw bolts and set up windshield wipers, and self-driving floor automobiles transfer parts and EVs to completely different areas inside the manufacturing facility.
With a lot autonomous {hardware}, human presence is unsurprisingly scarce. Sixty % of the duties are executed by robots, stated one among our contributors who visited the plant in Singapore final month in an article on our sister channel Motor1.com. And solely 100 employees are wanted to supply 30,000 automobiles a 12 months.
This isn’t your typical automobile manufacturing facility. It is a “microfactory,” the Wall Avenue Journal reported yesterday. It goals to reinvent manufacturing by constructing vehicles in a “cell” fairly than alongside a standard manufacturing line. Curiously, Hyundai’s microfactory, because the title suggests, is way smaller than conventional automobile factories. (Watch the manufacturing facility tour above)
For instance, Tesla’s Gigafactory Texas has a flooring area of greater than 10 million sq. ft, roughly equal to 100 soccer fields, and has a capability to construct greater than 250,000 EVs a 12 months. Hyundai’s Singapore plant, one among solely three manufacturing bases for the Ioniq 5 aside from South Korea and Indonesia, spans simply 935,000 sq. ft, with an annual manufacturing capability of 30,000 vehicles.
Sometimes, an meeting line is the place a car is put collectively step-by-step because it strikes alongside a conveyor belt or a collection of stations specializing in a particular process, like putting in the engine, the dashboard, or the seats. People and robots work in tandem to perform these duties. Hyundai’s cell-based mannequin isn’t vastly completely different basically, but it surely permits extra flexibility.
Within the cells, robots set up parts of a automobile, earlier than shifting to the following zone. The important thing differentiator is that the cells may be programmed with particular directions, proper from putting in parts for various variants of the identical automobile, or to engaged on a totally completely different mannequin. Conventional meeting traces would want vital retooling for related adaptability.
Nevertheless, the Singapore plant is extra of a expertise showcase, and it appears tailor-made for city areas the place area is at a premium. It is unlikely to revolutionize manufacturing anytime quickly—particularly not within the U.S. after a summer season filled with United Auto Staff strikes the place employees voiced their fears over robots and AI taking their jobs.
It is a reputable concern, and particularly jarring to know {that a} manufacturing facility that may make 30,000 EVs a 12 months employs simply 100 individuals. Is Hyundai going to construct extra of those? Will others copy Hyundai? We do not know but. And we definitely hope not. However with the business more and more shifting in direction of AI and automation globally to enhance effectivity and scale back prices, it’s an area definitely value maintaining a tally of.