How Microfactories Could Be the Manufacturing Strategy of the Future | WSJ

At Hyundai’s EV plant in Singapore, robotic arms, AI and robot dogs are some of the new features used to assemble cars in specialized cells. It’s a new automaking method taking place in smaller, more flexible microfactories instead of traditional production lines. But is the future of car manufacturing leaning towards more automation?

WSJ explains how microfactories could change the way cars are made and what that means for the future of automaking.

Chapters:
0:00 Singapore’s new EV factory
1:00 Microfactories vs. traditional factories
3:10 How microfactories affect labor
4:31 Are microfactories the future?

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[iuhuoqp]

Note also that there's a high import duty tax in Singapore for cars. So, this assembly might makes sense in Singapore only - to sell to the local population and evade taxes on import.

[Nainara]

I don't feel like this video explained what the advantages of a small-footprint cell based assembly plant are. Yes, it's automated, but so are assembly lines. Moreover, assembly lines are designed to support high-throughput, whereas cell-based assembly appears to be severely constrained.

[ReddoFreddo]

2:41, I don't think I've ever had a "We're in the future" moment more pronounced than when watching this clip. An autonomous robot working together with a human wearing an exoskeleton. The closest I came to this feeling was watching a rocket land, and before that the realization I had of how cool smartphones are. And of course we have AI, sooner or later we'll be able to have verbal conversations with computers, and thus also with autonomous robots. We're approaching Star Wars levels of tech.

[felixwalton]

Hyundai is the current owner of boston dynamics, makes sence that their using spot. The companies innovating technology like this are definetly the ones that will last

[Voxabonable]

It's an assembly line, not a factory. Finished parts are imported from Korea and Indonesia. This site costs $300 million, and doesn't manufacture a single bolt. To have a real factory would cost way more with tons more red tape. Dyson's now abandoned plan to set up a EV manufacturing plant in Singapore was budgeted at $2 billion. they're now investing about the same just to set up a battery production line. To say micro-factory being the manufacturing future is naive, please don't treat us like children.

[Justin_Bikes]

2:49, used to only see exoskeletons in movies but it's cool to see them regularly used for simple but heavy-load tasks

[thesadboxman]

I didn't hear any reasoning to suggest that a micro-factory makes any sense. The Hyundai rep just said that they're testing all sorts of factory solutions and that large scale factories are needed in addition to microfactories. But he provides no reason why micro-factories are advantageous. All the cool visuals of the automation could equally be done at a large scale factory. Please tell me where I'm wrong. I must be missing something.

[LukeBockman]

This only works in a place like Singapore. (very high car prices + cheap labor right across the border to make the sub assemblies + avoid the tariffs by being inside singapore)(Theyre only doing assembly as well so most of the work is done offsite)

[douglasunmack]

Yes this is the way to build a car factory IF you want it in Singapore. By WHY would you want it in Singapore? Most likely the government is propping this initiative up via incentives, grants, etc. Otherwise this factory would be somewhere cheaper … like Malaysia right next door.

[MatthewStinar]

They never answer the question, just blather on about automation.

[richardwilde]

I sold all my Arrival shares as they have virtually gone to zero. Definitely have my doubts about the concept, not least the logistics of shipping all the parts to a larger number of factories instead of more centralized. But still an interesting concept, will be keen to see how it plays out.

[nottera]

That seems great for producing a larger variety of cars/custom models bc they don’t have to set an entire factory for specific models

[mattsipes]

Wall Street Journal used the Tesla giga factory as an example but didn’t put any context behind why it’s the size it is. A Tesla giga factory can produce more than 1 million cars. The reason why the Texas location is at a 250 K capacity is because it’s being ramped up for the cyber truck as well as creates a significant portion of their battery cells.

[Charlie-gfmv]

But the point of a factory is that it is big and can rack up huge savings from economies of scale..

[mellis]

Boston Dynamics is owned by Hyundai. It was purchased in 2020 for 1 Billion dollars. Logically the use of their robotics systems will be deployed for 90% of assembly task. This will be the model for almost all vehicle builders within 10 years. Note: he said "a smaller factory that allows us to produce as many types of mobility devices in a cost effective way." Logistics & Assembly

[Nick-xcfy]

This is not the future. The capital investment cost is insane and what people don't understand is that the mark up for owning a car in Singapore is insane.For most other countries, economy of scale and a mass production line in a large plant is the solution. Additionally, there should be a tax on robots and automation, but that's a separate topic.

[DjChronokun]

seems like the only reasons this factory is small are:
1. it's assembly only (pressings, machining, etc. are done else where)
2. it's low volume

so yeah, it's probably just local assembly for the sake of Singapore's import duty and not much else

[iuhuoqp]

It's a bit of a stretch to call it a car factory. It's basically a car assembly compared to the Gigafactory.

[Arkan_Fadhila]

i still don't get the point of these microfactories. Sure creating more customizable factories and products is a welcome improvement and increase in automation is a good thing too, leading to higher efficiency. However big factories is still the way to mass-produce things and many automation things from microfactories can be brought to big factories too.

[sapphiron]

Wouldn't many small microfactories instead of a huge one make supplying them with materials and shipping their finished products a logistic nightmare? And if they just build 1 or 2, they would lose the advantage of the economy of scale no?