How long does it take to manufacture a phone from scratch? The answer from Huawei is 28.5 seconds. Unbelievable? Isn’t it?
A visit to Huawei factory located in Dongguan would unveil all the myths. From raw materials feeding to packaging, along the 120 meters of automatic assembly lines, Huawei has proven to the world the magic of producing a smart phone every 28.5 seconds.
In 2010, the total shipment of Huawei smart phones was merely 3 million pieces while in 2018, it skyrocketed to 2 billion pieces, 66 times of growth within 8 years. What’s behind the magical growth of the Chinese smart phone brand?
Quality Control
Creating a unique ID for each phone
The Huawei factory Zone B we’ve visited was lined with multiple highly automotive assembly lines, each was about 120 meters with only few workers. The assembly line for P20 has only 17 workers.
The manager in charge of Zone B told us that it’s the manufacturing base for Huawei high-end smart phones like P series, Mate series and Porsche series. It’s also the incubation center where Huawei sharpens its key competencies in manufacturing. All Huawei smart phones have to be produced here at the beginning, after testing and reassuring the stability of manufacturing, then the production would be transferred to other places.
Along the assembly line for P20, raw materials were feeding as the conveyer belt moved on, laser machine then put on a unique code on each board. As we started to walk for less than 40 meters, 3 automatic processes have passed. After testing all the finished products by machine, they would also go through another stringent testing process by workers for ultimate user performance.
Huawei has never ceased to improving its production. Since 1999, the manufacturing department has been partnering with Germany company FhG to design Huawei factory and the automation of assembly lines. In 2002, with the help of Siemens Learning Institute, Six Sigma Total Quality Management system was implemented. In 2006, Huawei invited retired directors of Toyota to work as their consultant for precision manufacturing. In 2012, the company has introduced the safety manufacturing practices of DuPont.
Intelligent Manufacturing
A smart phone every 28.5 seconds
It’s estimated that there’re 35 assembly lines in Huawei factory in Dongguan, and each month the manufacturing output surpasses 2 million pieces. According to the manager, six years ago when he joined Huawei, there’re over 100 workers in an assembly line, four years later it reduced to about 50, now only 17 workers worked for P20 line.
Most of the works in Huawei factory are now done by robots, from trucks delivering raw materials, automotive warehousing, assembly lines, outgoing of finished products, etc.
Encouraging Innovations
The greatest advantage of highly automatic manufacturing in Huawei factory is thousands or even millions of components parts can be assembled with the same specifications within a day. The company has launched a series of incentives programs encouraging their staffs for tech innovations and to improve manufacturing facilities.
For example, the one meter conveyer belt used to feed and dispatch goods was developed by a staff based on the Law of Gravity. The side loaded with mobile phone would go automatically into the next process, while the other side without any phone would return. Cases like this were plenty in Huawei, as in every assembly workshop there was a hero list on one side of the wall, listing photos of the staffs who have made contributions to the company, like “saving 6600 seconds per line” and “reducing 200 times of bending over every shift”.
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