- $150 million mega-factory uses AI and robotics to build robots
- Automated production helping support China’s industrial transformation
- ABBs’ intelligent robotics solutions increase productivity, reduce waste and maximize efficiency
“Our vision for the factory of the future” is how ABB’s state-of-the-art, fully automated, robotics factory in Kangqiao, Shanghai was described at its inauguration.
The 67,000m2 production and research facility represents a $150 million (1.1 billion RMB) investment by ABB and deploys the company’s digital and automation technologies to manufacture next-generation robots. ABB’s intelligent robotics solutions support businesses by increasing productivity, reducing waste and maximizing efficiency.
“Our innovative, automated and flexible factory plays a key role in our strategy of ‘in China, for China,’ strengthening our full value chain here. With over 90 percent of sales supported by our factory, the new facility will help our customers in China create more locally made products, solutions and services.”
– Sami Atiya, President of ABB Robotics and Discrete Automation
What makes a mega-factory?
While there is no strict definition, the sheer size of ABB’s Shanghai facility qualifies it as one. These factories typically feature expansive manufacturing areas, research and development spaces, and on-site utility sources.
Highlights of the Kangqiao facility include:
- Traditional, fixed assembly lines replaced by flexible, modular production cells
- These are are digitally connected and networked, and served by intelligent autonomous, mobile robots
- Modular automation technologies allow the factory to produce ABB’s entire robot portfolio, for a wide range of applications
- Our collaborative robots and state-of-the-art safety features enable people to work alongside robots, even sharing tasks, for greater flexibility and efficiency
- The factory operates as a digital manufacturing ecosystem. Data collected from intelligently automated processes is analyzed to make more informed decisions
- A complete ‘digital twin’ allows data driven optimization and changes in production to be tested and implemented rapidly
- AI-powered robotic systems perform tasks such as screwdriving, assembling and material handling, freeing people for more rewarding work.
Combining physical and digital
The mega-factory’s combination of physical and digital has created a manufacturing ecosystem that harnesses virtual planning and production management systems to improve performance and maximize productivity through the collection and analysis of data.
Meanwhile the site’s R&D center, covering an area of 8,000m2, is designed to create new innovations in Artificial Intelligence (AI), digitalization and software, such as autonomous mobility, digital twin, machine vision and low-code programming software, to make robots more intelligent, flexible, safer and easier to use.
A global growth market for robotics
The factory was opened in December 2022, amid predicted growth in the global robot market to $130 billion in 2025.
China is the world’s largest robotics market, accounting for 52 percent of global robot installations and passing the 1.5 million mark of operational robots in 2022.
ABB employs more than 15,000 people in over 130 cities in China, and China remains one of ABB’s most important R&D and manufacturing centers. As one of three ABB Robotics factories worldwide, the Shanghai facility supports customers in Asia.
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