From the production of motherboards and assembly to testing and packaging, it takes just two hours for OPPO to produce a smartphone. OPPO has now achieved 85 percent automated manufacturing. Through the use of automation, each of its 20-plus assembly lines in Dongguan, Guangdong Province, completes over 6,000 motherboards per day.
The smartphone maker has also automated 90 percent of its testing. To ensure quality, it conducts free-fall tests, dropping test phones 300 times from a height of one meter, and also tests water resistance. Since some of the components are almost as thin as a human hair and are therefore difficult to see, human staff weigh the completed phones to ensure that no parts are missing before packaging.
OPPO is also exploring the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to upgrade its mobile phone production processes. It established the OPPO AI Center in Dongguan in February.
“We have developed phones equipped with AI technologies that help remove unwanted parts of photos automatically. It has also introduced new functions such as transcribing and summarizing phone calls,” Yue Wentao, Assistant to President of OPPO China, told Beijing Review.
This kind of automation and industrial upgrading is not just occurring within OPPO. As one of the country’s largest manufacturing and international trade hubs, Guangdong in south China is now transforming itself into an international center for science and technology.
“There are no outdated industries, only outdated methods of production. As technological innovation has shifted from being a best practice to becoming a necessity, many enterprises in Guangdong have turned to digital transformation to improve production efficiency and cut costs,” Ding Minglei, a researcher at the China Academy of Science and Technology for Development, told Beijing Review.
Smarter manufacturing
Dongguan is an internationally recognized industrial base and trade hub. Total output of its electronics industry approached 1 trillion yuan ($138 billion) last year. It has developed a complete industrial system. The components needed to produce mobile phones are all produced nearby and 90 percent of them can be delivered within the hour when needed. One out of every six mobile phones in the world is produced in the city.
Founded in Dongguan in 2004, OPPO has expanded its business to over 50 countries and regions, with around 100 assembly lines across the globe. In recent years, OPPO has invested about 50 billion yuan ($6.9 billion) in research and development (R&D) and it now has over 10,000 R&D staff. According to International Data Corp., a global market data provider, OPPO ranked the fifth in the world in terms of global market share in the first quarter this year.
Also based in Dongguan, Guangdong Topstar Technology Co. Ltd., founded in 2007, has around 2,500 employees. It focuses on the production of robots and other machines. Present in more than 50 countries and regions, the company has provided its products and services to more than 15,000 enterprises, including the Chinese carmaker BYD.
Through cooperating with AI companies, Topstar is developing robots with AI brains that can process users’ verbal instructions, making them easier to operate.
Founded in Dongguan in 2013, Guangdong Dtech Technology Co. Ltd. specializes in the production of printed circuit board (PCB) drill bits, which are used to make electronic products, spacecraft and vehicles. In its workshop in Dongguan, automated machines are able to produce drill bits as thin as 0.03 millimeters in diameter. The company also has production facilities in Nanyang, Henan Province in central China, and a plant in Thailand.
“Dtech has developed 90 percent of the machines it uses for drill bit manufacturing and quality testing independently, and it now has more than 500 authorized patents. Over 300 of its staff are engaged in R&D,” Wang Xin, founder of the company, told Beijing Review, adding that Dtech currently holds a 26.5-percent share of the global PCB drill bit market.
Before it adopted intelligent assembly lines, around 2,500 staff were needed to produce 60 million drill bits per month. Last year, only 1,500 workers completed 70 million drill bits in the same period, Wang said.
According to Wang, the staff no longer required for production receive training on the operation and repair of the machines to become more skilled technicians.
Next level
Based in Shenzhen, Guangdong, ZTE is a global leader in telecommunications and information technology. Founded in 1985, it has been expanding its mobile devices business, betting big on the market opportunities presented by the new-generation 5G network.
With a presence in more than 160 countries and regions, ZTE serves more than one fourth of the world’s people. Its net profit in 2023 reached 9.33 billion yuan ($1.28 billion).
“Starting from 2016, ZTE has been accelerating its digital transformation. Besides introducing phones and tablets, it also focuses on chips, 5G technologies, cloud computing and the application of AI,” Jiang Wen, ZTE’s Deputy General Manager of Product Marketing, told Beijing Review.
According to Jiang, the company has provided 5G-enabled technologies for Guangzhou’s smart subway network, communication on airplanes, unmanned vehicles, and automated operation at domestic ports. Its 5G technologies allow 160 passengers to simultaneously stream videos in high definition on civil airplanes.
ZTE’s 5G and AI technologies have enabled real-time monitoring and automated goods sorting at Tianjin Port, a major cargo transport hub, improving the operation efficiency by 30 percent and enhancing safety.
The company’s 5G and AI-based vehicle system supports 60 km/h autonomous driving on open urban roads covering an area of 162 square km in Suzhou, east China’s Jiangsu Province. The autonomous driving network reduces traffic congestion by 20 percent and cuts down the accident rate by 8 percent, according to ZTE.
The company also supports emergency rescue through its 5G communication system. In cases where disasters disrupt 5G base stations, unmanned drones can be dispatched within 20 minutes to provide 5G coverage. Each drone is capable of creating a 120-square-meter network, allowing trapped people to contact rescuers, Jiang said.
The company is also pursuing intelligent and green production. Its 5G Binjiang Factory in Nanjing, Jiangsu has introduced automated guided vehicles (AGVs) for transportation and security patrol. The AGVs use 5G technologies to identify routes and avoid collisions, reducing production time by 42 percent and time to market by 17 percent. The dark factory operating with minimal human labor manufactures 5G products using automated 5G technologies, which reduces electricity consumption.
ZTE is delving into future industries by working on 5G-Advanced (5G-A) technology, which enhances 5G and approaches 6G. This 5G-A technology is 10 times faster than 5G.
“This year is the first year of 5G-A commercialization. The technology will help achieve more stable connectivity with lower costs,” Tang Xue, Vice President of ZTE, told Beijing Review, noting that many countries in the Middle East and Europe are accelerating their adoption of this technology.
According to Tang, 5G-A technology will boost the development of the low-altitude economy, which now serves fields including logistics, emergency rescue and agriculture. The 5G network only reaches a height of 100 meters, but 5G-A network will enable the signal to reach 300 to 600 meters high, which will facilitate connection with manned flying cars. The 5G-A base stations also serve as sensors, which monitor surroundings and warn of natural disasters such as earthquakes in advance.
“The 5G-A technology will also change people’s daily lives, including by making them feel as if they’re physically together during video calls,” Tang projected.
Spreading wings
New technologies are bringing great opportunities for the low-altitude economy. XPENG AEROHT, the electric aviation unit of the Chinese electric carmaker XPeng Inc., is the largest flying car company in Asia. Now based in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong, the company has been developing electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) flying cars, offering quick point-to-point independent travel. There are now more than 300 companies in the low-altitude industry in Guangzhou.
With its predecessor, Huitian Aerospace Technology Co. Ltd., established in 2013, XPENG AEROHT was officially founded in 2020. The company has introduced five generations of eVTOL flying cars, making over 15,000 test flights. It developed and tested XPENG X1, with both manual and autonomous modes, in November 2020. The latest model XPENG X2 then completed its first manned flight in 2021.
The maximum flying speed of X2 is 130 km per hour, and it is capable of flying for around 25 minutes on a single charge.
Last year, X2 became the first of its kind in China to receive a permit from the Civil Aviation Administration of China for flights along fixed flight paths.
Earlier this year, the company announced it will begin mass production of the “land aircraft carrier” modular flying cars, which integrate low-altitude manned drones with intelligent vehicles. These vehicles have a ground module with wheels and an air module with rotors, with the two modules docking for road travel and separating for air travel—imagine a minivan with a detachable two-seater drone in the back. The ground module charges the air module.
As of April this year, XPENG AEROHT held nearly 700 patents in fields including automated driving and new materials. It has built R&D centers in Shenzhen, Shanghai and other cities. R&D staff account for 85 percent of the company’s total employees.
“The flying cars will be used in emergency rescue, aerial sightseeing and other fields,” Qiu Mingquan, Vice President of the company, told Beijing Review.
It may still take more than a decade for people to see flying cars in urban traffic, but modular cars that can be driven and flown will be available for individual users in the next few years, Qiu said.
According to Qiu, the modular flying cars will be open for preorder in the fourth quarter of this year, and mass production and delivery to consumers will start in the fourth quarter of 2025.
Although futuristic scenes of taking eVTOL flying taxis are not yet here, drones delivering food or medicines, which can even sense surroundings to form queues, are already a reality in Guangdong. The provincial government is aiming for the low-altitude economy to exceed 300 billion yuan ($41.4 billion) in total output by 2026.
Further move
In 2023, the number of hi-tech companies in Guangdong reached 75,000, and R&D investment by the government, institutions and enterprises totaled 460 billion yuan ($63.5 billion), according to the Guangdong Provincial Government.
Ding, the research fellow, emphasized that Guangdong needs to foster new quality productive forces, which are advanced productive forces where innovation plays a leading role, to create new competitive advantages. He suggested that the government needs to create supportive environments for future industries and new technologies, and further facilitate commercialization of scientific and technological research, especially supporting enterprises to innovate.
“The provincial authorities need to boost the market, innovators and the business environment to create an industrial system for small, medium-sized and large enterprises to thrive,” Ding said. –The Daily Mail-Beijing Review news exchange item
