Latest news with #smartfactory
Forbes
13-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
How Schneider Electric Is Deploying Automation In-House To Showcase It
Schneider Electric's 'smart factory' in Le Vaudreuil, Normandy, France. If you were to walk past global energy management and digital automation giant Schneider Electric's factory in the commune of Le Vaudreuil, Normandy, France, its demure exterior may not quite capture your imagination. But those allowed to peek inside are greeted by an imaginative transformation of a legacy estate into a 'smart factory' of the future operated by the Forbes Global 2000 company. Its where the fourth industrial revolution or '4IR' meets manufacturing to churn out the company's hardware products. Industrial Internet of Things or 'IIoT' sensors connected to digital platforms aid with anything from plant control to raw material procurement, output monitoring to efficiencies improvement. All the while Paul, Émile, Victor and Angélique - the plant's automated guided vehicles or 'AGV' turtles and tractors - roam the shop floors fetching products, moving parts and inventory for their human counterparts, as digital scanners perform quality control tests on manufactured products. Those human counterparts utilize advanced data analytics, digital health and safety tools, artificial intelligence platforms and robotics for their routine tasks at a site that's morphed in less than a decade from a solutions testing ground to a scaled development hub. 'The plant is five decades old. The seeds of change were planted in 2018 when a gradual transformation was set in motion using Schneider Electric's homegrown automation solutions that enabled us to introduce digitalization to a manufacturing site that has very much been part of our corporate history,' said Virginie Rigaudeau, sustainable transformation project leader, communication and change management, at Schneider Electric, who has overseen the transformation. 'From supply chain to shop floor, what you see at Le Vaudreuil is electrification, digitization and automation in service of our colleagues, collaborators and suppliers and one that has had a positive impact on our external ecosystem too. "It's a full spectrum 4IR offering if you wish, that we constantly monitor and improve via live data-streams from every corner of the 14,000 square meter shopfloor - a journey kick-started by our then CEO Jean-Pascal Tricoire some seven years ago,' Rigaudeau added. Back in the day, Tricoire who is now the company's chairman, was always one to call for smart homes, smart cities, and of course, smart factories on the international energy circuit. Schneider Electric's very own smart factory does live up to its name in terms of throughput, process efficiencies and a lower carbon footprint. Data since deployment are noteworthy. Compared to 2018, the transformation has helped reduce power consumption by 35%, cut material waste by 17%, and lower CO2 emissions by 25%. 'The factory is also equipped with a zero-reject water recycling station connected to cloud analytics monitored by artificial intelligence that predicts and processes flows leading to a 64% reduction in water use,' Rigaudeau added. A worker uses digital tools at Schneider Electric's 'smart factory' in Le Vaudreuil, Normandy, ... More France. Manufacturing efficiency has improved by 10%, field failure by nearly 50% and delivery lead time by a whopping 70% from the way it was prior to a full scale solutions deployment. A 'cyber-score' is kept of it all eyeing yet further improvements. 'It's all about showcasing operational excellence, state-of-the-art engineering and what the future will look like - all underpinned by energy efficiencies,' said Anthony Loy, vice president of industrial digital transformation at Schneider Electric. The Le Vaudreuil plant, though of much obvious historical significance to a French multinational company, is one among several such global facilities on Schneider Electric's portfolio stretching from India to the U.S. 'Sitting alongside Le Vaudreuil, are our other smart factories in the U.S. (Lexington, Kentucky), India (Hyderabad), China (Wuxi) and Indonesia (Batam). In total, 11 of our sites are part of the initiative designed to further our understanding, development and upscaling of industrial information technology, operational technology and process efficiencies solutions,' Loy added. 'Essentially we are demonstrating - to both existing and prospective customers - the use cases and benefits that can be targeted in the service of the manufacturing and industrial complex by deploying the very automation and digitization solutions we market to them internally and showing them the results.' 'In today's competitive manufacturing landscape there is a solid capital expenditure, operating expenditure, business and productivity growth case for automation solutions. Operational gains, process efficiencies and fine margins matter to both us and our customers,' Loy noted. Much of it is predicated on EcoStruxure - Schneider Electric's IIoT solutions suite - for improving industrial and manufacturing outcomes. All its smart factories deploying predictive and prescriptive analytics, AI and 4IR integrated technologies like the Le Vaudreuil plant showcase it. That demonstration is mission critical for bagging new customers in a fiercely competitive automation business. Various estimates suggest the industrial automation market may witness a compound annual growth rate of 9% to 10% from being north of $180 billion last year to around $400 billion by the end of the decade. Market size and growth rates will also vary in different segments of industrial automation, according to McKinsey from automotive to food and beverage. So the growth might actually even be higher contingent upon take-up by various segments of the global economy. In each of these at any given point, Schneider Electric toughs it out with a plethora of global competitors like ABB, Honeywell, Emerson, Rockwell Automation, Siemens and Yokogawa, but to name a few. It's what makes showing to existing and potential customers 'that you are eating your own food" really important, said Barbara Frei, Executive Vice President, Industrial Automation at Schneider Electric. Barbara Frei, Executive Vice President, Industrial Automation at Schneider Electric. 'The idea that automation solutions can be sold on the strength of marketing pitches alone is not workable. You have to prove your credentials and your solutions. Our smart factories demonstrate this,' Frei added. 'Le Vaudreuil was a decades-old brownfield side prior to its transformation, and look what we have achieved with that. Throughout the journey that began in 2018, even before the smart automation that you see at play in 2025 - we regularly invited customers and partners there to see how we are using our homegrown solutions to improve our own manufacturing process and demonstrate quality standards. That counts." Frei also described it as a collaborative journey. 'Not only do we conduct our internal benchmarking, but also invite input from customers about their process efficiencies and experiences to further fine tune our solutions, ultimately for them.' The automation solutions showcasing has brought accolades too. Seven of the company's 11 smart factories have been designated as the World Economic Forum's 'sustainability lighthouses' or sites deemed as models for sustainable industrial processes and 4IR. The initiative has also spurred on a growing consulting arm for Schneider Electric that offers customers guidance on process optimization where its kit sits alongside solutions from other vendors. 'And what starts as an automation consulting partnership then often progress to a wider commercial sale, at which point the cost of the initial consultation is compensated back to the customer.' Naturally, such automation solutions do not come cheap. Schneider Electric declined to offer a steer on how much end-to-end solutions deployed at Le Vaudreuil would cost owing to commercial sensitivities. As for its market growth from automation solutions sales to end of the decade, Frei said it would be 'in several multiples.' Make what you will of that, even several billions, as the company and its competitors line up to fight it out lucrative automation arena.
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
LG Innotek to build FC-BGA into 700 million USD business by 2030 with its state-of-the-art Dream Factory
SEOUL, South Korea, May 12, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- LG unveiled the Dream Factory, a hub for the production of FC-BGAs (Flip Chip Ball Grid Arrays), the company's next-generation growth engine, to the media for the first time and announced it on the 30th April. In 2022, LG Innotek announced its plans to launch a business producing FC-BGAs, high-value semiconductor substrates. To build the Dream Factory, the company acquired LG Electronics' Gumi 4 Factory and began full-scale mass production in February 2024. The Dream Factory, spanning a total area of 26,000 square meters, is regarded as the industry's most advanced "smart" factory, integrating the latest IT technologies, including artificial intelligence, deep learning, robotics, and digital twin technologies. By applying automation, information, and intelligence technologies to the entire process, it has established a cutting-edge FC-BGA production infrastructure that eliminates the four major factors known to undermine production competitiveness: human error (Man), failure cost(F-cost), breakdown maintenance (BM) loss, and accidents. "Elimination of defects caused by human contact" through automation of all processes and logistics using robots For semiconductor substrate products such as FC-BGAs, which require a highly demanding ultra-fine process, even the smallest foreign objects (eyelash, saliva, etc.) can cause quality issues. Therefore, it is crucial to minimize human contact with products during production. To this end, LG Innotek has introduced a completely automated logistics system at the Dream Factory, where coming across a person is a rare event. Apart from essential personnel, such as equipment maintenance and repair workers, all 10 steps of the FC-BGA production and logistics processes are unmanned. Dozens of autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) move materials around the production line autonomously. When a production order is placed, which is done automatically, based on the customer's delivery timeframe entered in the RTS (real-time schedule), the AMRs transport the raw materials to the process facility. Once the barcode on the raw material is detected, also done automatically, by the machine, the process recipe is automatically set on the equipment according to the product specifications through the recipe management system (RMS), after which the product processing begins. The AMRs are also responsible for loading the finished product back into the stocker. In addition, the process of peeling off the protective film from the panel (film detach) is also replaced by a robot. This enables the early prevention of fine scratches and defects caused by foreign objects such as dust particles and foreign substances. The construction of non-touch production facilities, involving such equipment as collaborative robots, in the entire process has significantly reduced mishandling by workers. Unmanned AI-based FC-BGA quality inspection, enhancing customer confidence by ensuring quality "transparency" The Dream Factory generates more than 200,000 files and 100GB of data related to FC-BGA production every day. LG Innotek collects this data throughout the production process through sensors installed in all of its facilities. By applying AI, which continuously learns from this big data, to the defect prediction and inspection system, the company has significantly reduced the lead time caused by defects. In addition, LG Innotek has applied an AI deep learning vision inspection system to the Automated Optical Inspection (AOI) process, which is the most important step in determining whether a product is of good quality. Tirelessly, the robot moves the finished FC-BGA board products to the vision screening inspection table. Next, the AI, which has been trained on tens of thousands of data points on defective and good quality FC-BGAs, detects micro-level defects that are challenging to identify with the naked eye, and it does so in only 30 seconds. LG Innotek is operating a further advanced AOI process. In the room next to the AOI equipment for faulty circuits, there is a much larger robot and inspection system. Called Line Quality Control (LQC), it can automatically check whether the various specifications (thickness, size, etc.) of the product requested by the customer have been fulfilled. The inspection data is immediately sent to the customer, ensuring product quality transparency, which leads to higher customer confidence. This industry-leading sophistication of LG Innotek's AOI equipment has been cited as one of the most impressive aspects of the factory by the global customers who have visited it. AI can identify defective products, and since every product has a barcode that tracks its process history, products that are deemed defective are automatically filtered out without the need for human intervention, reducing F-costs by more than 50%. Additionally, AI has been applied to the digital simulation system, which prevents product defects and equipment failures. Previously, the process of workers manually checking products for defects and identifying which machines were faulty and how to repair them in response to defects required a lot of time. This can now be significantly improved. By 2026, LG Innotek plans to introduce an intelligent Quality Management System (i-QMS) that detects and analyzes quality irregularities during production in real time and automatically corrects them. The company plans to automate the entire FC-BGA production process, especially by developing a platform that uses digital twin technology to share information on all processes, from product development to production, with customers in real time to enhance customer responsiveness. Optimized FC-BGA process equipment using digital twin technology, "halving the ramp-up period" Since even the smallest variables can lead to poor performance in FC-BGAs, equipment optimized for mass production and process recipes and production environments set to perfect values are fundamental to achieving high yields. The FC-BGA process equipment installed in the Dream Factory is set to optimal conditions through digital twin technology. In the past, identifying optimal conditions for the FC-BGA process required a lot of time and money, along with hundreds of tests. Before building the facility, LG Innotek managed to identify problems with the initial setup of the FC-BGA process facility in advance by conducting a "factory simulation" using 3D modelling in virtual space. This enabled the facility to be carefully set for optimal conditions, such as liquid, heat, and air flow, which were difficult to measure inside the actual facility. As a result, the ramp-up period (increase in production capacity by improving initial production yields) was shortened by nearly half compared to the previous operation period. In addition, digital twin technology is applied to the Line Monitoring System (LMS), which monitors production status in real time. The real-time monitoring system enables users to monitor the production line currently in operation, product movement, inventory status, equipment irregularities, production performance, and product quality status at a glance on the large screen of the integrated control room where the LMS is installed. This makes it possible to respond immediately in the event of any irregularity. Internalization of glass core technology, step-by-step entry into the high-end FC-BGA market: "Fostering the business into 700 million USD business by 2030" Over the past 50 years, LG Innotek has accumulated core technologies for high-value semiconductor substrates, such as ultra-fine microcircuits and high-density, multi-layer substrate matching technology (stacking multiple substrate layers accurately and evenly), through its substrate material components business. Based on this know-how, the company began full-scale mass production of FC-BGAs for personal computers (PCs) for North American big-tech customers at the end of last year and recently succeeded in securing additional global big-tech clients. This year, LG Innotek aims to enter the FC-BGA market for PC central processing units (CPUs). Its strategy is to enter the high-end FC-BGA market in phases, including entering the server FC-BGA market as early as 2026. In preparation for this, LG Innotek has already acquired facilities that are essential in the manufacturing of FC-BGA products for servers, such as "edge coating" that blocks the generation of dust particles. In line with this goal, LG Innotek will also accelerate the development of next-generation substrate technologies in collaboration with global big-tech clients. By 2027, the company plans to internalize technologies such as re-distribution layer (RDL) technology, which engraves microcircuit patterns directly onto the substrate; device embedding technology, which minimizes power loss by embedding devices into the substrate; and multi-layer core (MLC) and glass core (glass substrate) technologies, which prevent warping when implementing large-area substrates. In particular, LG Innotek has been promoting glass substrates by strengthening its collaboration with global customers. Minseok Kang, vice president and head of LG Innotek's Substrate & Material Business Unit, said, "LG Innotek will continue to expand the production of FC-BGAs that provide exceptional customer value based on its state-of-the-art Dream Factory and develop the FC-BGA business into 700 million USD business by 2030." According to the Fuji Chimera Research Institute, the size of the global FC-BGA market is expected to more than double from USD 8 billion in 2022 to USD 16.4 billion in 2030. [Glossary] FC-BGA (Flip Chip Ball Grid Array): This is a semiconductor substrate that is widely applied to electronic devices equipped with semiconductor chips (CPU, GPU, AI chips, etc.) that perform various computing functions. Demand for high-performance semiconductor substrates is growing rapidly due to increased data throughput, higher semiconductor processing speeds, and the need for low-power semiconductors. For these reasons, FC-BGAs have a larger area and more layers than conventional semiconductor substrates. They are also known to have high barriers to market entry because they require top-level facilities and technologies to produce. 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