HONOR, a leading global provider of smart devices which recently confirmed its comeback to the Philippines last August 9, 2022, revealed the proprietary technology behind its smartphones, laptops, wearables, and routers made exclusively in the HONOR Intelligent Manufacturing Industrial Park. The highly-secured facility is the brand’s first self-funded factory. Demonstrating excellence, it’s the brand’s commitment to delivering cutting-edge innovation as testament to HONOR’s capability to manufacture high-quality premium products at scale.
HONOR Intelligent Manufacturing Industrial Park
“The opening of the HONOR Intelligent Manufacturing Industrial Park was a significant milestone of our success in integrating our R&D capabilities into our manufacturing processes. The consolidation allows us to better harness our expertise across both fields,” said George Zhao, CEO of HONOR Device Co, Ltd. “In addition to bolstering our manufacturing capacities, the smart manufacturing facility houses world-class production, testing, and quality control equipment that ensures our premium products live up to our customers’ high expectations.”
Seamless Integration between R&D and Manufacturing
The HONOR Intelligent Manufacturing Industrial Park is the brand’s first self-funded factory. Equipped with cutting-edge manufacturing and testing facilities to support every aspect of smartphone manufacturing, the Park is integral to assuring the quality of the brand’s premium offerings. With 20 percent of the staff working in the Park being R&D personnel, HONOR weaves its R&D resources into the Park’s core capabilities, maximizing the synergy between the two and enabling manufacturing technology to keep pace with innovation.
Managing End-to-End Quality Control with the Power of Automation and Intelligence
Automation reduces the variation and defects caused by human errors resulting in greater consistency in quality. HONOR’s Intelligent Manufacturing Industrial Park is equipped with industry-leading high-precision automatic manufacturing technology, including an automatic precision assembly machine (for installing the 89° Super Curved Display used in HONOR smartphones) that can achieve assembly precision of up to 75 microns (about a hair’s diameter).
The automatic battery assembly equipment adopts high-precision optical detection which can detect foreign bodies (as small as up to 40 microns) and monitor real-time pressure, ensuring the safety of batteries produced and reducing safety risks caused by manual work. Seventy-five percent of the production line is completed using automation, of which more than 40 percent was developed by HONOR’s own Research & Development team. HONOR’s automated production line enables one smartphone to leave the line every 28.5 seconds (cycle time).
Quality control is ensured from the manufacturing to the testing phase through the close monitoring of every step of the assembly line. When an anomaly is detected, an alert is triggered followed by timely correction of the issue. While the common industry practice is to separate assembly and burn-in testing (offline aging process), HONOR uses an online aging process where assembly and burn-in testing are done in one process. HONOR’s process consists of over 150 prediction tests that quickly detect quality issues and shortens the turnover and testing period.
HONOR has adopted the “manufacturing supermarket” concept to build a lean and intelligent material distribution system. The real-time demand of the production line is linked to the intelligent selection of off-shelf components. As a result, colleagues can manage a rapid error-free process of material selection that is then automatically delivered to the production station by Automated Guided Vehicles (AGV) across floors and inventory areas. After product packaging is completed, the AGV’s intelligent scheduling system automatically picks up the products.
Three Pillars of Manufacturing Excellence
Automation, digitalization, and intelligent technology serve as the cornerstones underpinning the Park’s core manufacturing capabilities. The Park operates with 75 percent of its production line automated, minimizing the risk of human error. Additionally, more than 40 percent of the automated production equipment is developed in-house, which serves as further evidence of the tight integration between R&D and manufacturing capabilities at the Park.
All key equipment in the production facility supports digital control systems, allowing HONOR to better manage the entire production line and reap better efficiency as well as improve product quality.