The industrial revolution is bearing fruit: swords are turning into guns, people are moving from horses to cars, robots are starting to work in factories, and we are gradually coming to the era of high-tech business. The development of the Internet of Things has made it possible to modernize many factories, add automation and deep control of production to them. Ecology and efficiency, speed and millions of responsive sensors - these are the priorities of modern owners large factories. We will tell about them. Here are ten of the most advanced plants and factories in the world.

AMRC in Sheffield

In 2015, Sheffield opened "one of the most advanced factories in the world", as project leaders described it. The Advanced Manufacturing Research Center has partnered with Boeing to unveil Factory 2050, a glass-walled convertible factory at the heart of a new advanced campus at the University of Sheffield's Sheffield Business Park. AMRC Executive Dean Professor Keith Ridgway noted that Factory 2050 should be the most high-tech factory in the world.

It will be the home of the Integrated Manufacturing Group and will feature advanced assembly and manufacturing technologies, advanced robots, flexible automation, next-generation human-machine interfaces, and new programming and learning tools.

SpaceX's 50,000 sq. in a three-story building, originally built by Northtop to assemble the fuselages of the 747. Now, this plant houses areas for the assembly of avionics, missiles, capsules, a quality control installation, as well as a control center behind a glass wall that monitors and controls the Dragon capsule in flight . Dragon is the first private spacecraft to orbit the Earth and return safe and sound. At one of the most advanced factories in the world, SpaceX is testing various elements of its Falcon 9 rockets, Dragon capsules and Merlin engines.

SpaceX's headquarters in the Los Angeles suburb of Hawthorne, where the company assembles its rockets, is in a place of high concentration of aerospace manufacturers: Boeing, Raytheon, NASA, BAE Systems, Northrop Grumann, AECOM and others also work here. Most notably, SpaceX uses vertical integration and builds virtually all elements of the rocket, along with software, at its Hawthorne plant.

Tesla

The Tesla factory is one of the most high-tech in the world. At the Tesla factory in Fremont, California, nearly 500,000 sq. m. devoted to production and offices. Everywhere you look, there are robots that simultaneously process cars and produce about 100,000 cars a year. Tesla owner Elon Musk doesn't like to talk much about what goes on behind the closed door of the factory, but as time goes on, the world is gradually learning about its filling.

Particularly surprising is the efficiency and sterile conditions in which Tesla operates. It is in this concentrated and high-tech environment that AI-powered autopilot is being developed to drive the company's electric vehicles on its own.

Siemens plant in Germany

Modeling, 3D printing, lightweight robots are just a few of the innovative technologies that are pushing the fourth industrial revolution - Industry 4.0. And they are already working at the Siemens electronics assembly plant in Erlangen, Germany. One of the main reasons for the success of this plant is that people and machines work hand in hand.

Manfred Kirchberger, plant manager, says the efficiency is unique: “We manufacture industrial drives and controllers for production equipment. At our customers' factories, numbers often exceed the millions. It would be too expensive to produce all this equipment by hand. In addition, customer requirements are changing faster than ever, so production lines need to be flexible.”

Permanent and rapid adaptation is possible only if the workforce is ready to accept changes in combination with modern technologies.

United Launch Alliance

You don't have to be an engineer to understand how important rockets are to us. More than a thousand satellites are currently working around the Earth, which provide us with navigation, communications, security and scientific research. United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed, builds the rockets that put satellites into orbit. And it does it efficiently and inexpensively, thanks to the competent management of enterprise resources.

The Alliance maintains program management, engineering, testing and mission control from its headquarters in Centennial, Colorado. Assembly, assembly and production take place in Decatur and Harlingen. Obviously, in order to ensure high-quality and high-tech assembly lines, ULA not only uses advanced technology, but also an ERP system.

Lockheed Martin plant at Plant 4 Air Force Base in Fort Worth

No list of the world's coolest factories would be complete without Plant 4. Dozens of next generation fighter jets are scattered throughout the facility in various stages of assembly. The latest weaponry and high-tech aerospace technology design is reminiscent of World War II. This plant currently produces the F-35, the most advanced fighter aircraft in the world. The plant is self-sufficient and performs assembly and installation almost independently.

Boeing manufacturing facility in Everett, Washington

Everyone knows that Boeing produces the largest, most reliable and most famous passenger airliners in the world. The place of their assembly is a labyrinth of moving parts and workers, in the center of which is erected the massive frame of one aircraft, known to all Boeing.

During World War II, B-17s were assembled at this plant. In 2005-2009, the Everett facility began the Future Factory project to create a new, pleasant workspace in the factory's main building. The goal was to encourage cooperation among people, to improve the quality of work of employees and, in general, the efficiency of production. Approximately 4,000 people moved to 55,700 sq. m. of renovated space in five office buildings. In fact, the Everett plant is the main representative of Boeing in our world.

Fab32 Semiconductor Fab

100,000 sq. m. of area and a thousand employees on one floor alone - this is the Intel Fab32 plant in Arizona and at the same time the headquarters of the technology giant. The main floor has 17,000 sq. m. of clean rooms, in which tens of millions of energy-efficient processors are created.

The most distinguishing feature the plant is not visible. It has been rated "class 10" indoor cleanliness, which means the presence of ten or fewer particles of 0.5 microns or less per 1 cubic foot of air (approximately 28 liters). The thickness of a human hair is approximately 80 microns. For comparison, in operating theaters hospitals are allowed a purity class of 10,000: the air in the Fab32 room is a thousand times cleaner than the air in the operating room. The air outside is class 3 million.

McLaren Technology Center in Wakin, UK

In general, this plant is beautiful in itself: it is located on the shore of the lake and resembles long letter S. The height of the plant was deliberately limited to reduce the visual impact of this structure on the environment: a person passing by will see trees rising above the top of the building.

The McLaren Group has one goal: victory. And any Formula 1 fan knows that the McLaren team has not only retained an excellent share of the checkered flags over the past four decades, but has enjoyed technological advances your company. Such a company simply must have a cool plant.

eBay

The last item on our list is not exactly a factory. And in general, the word “factory” itself has recently lost its ancient meaning - smelling of oil, a noisy object on which powerful, heavy, steel pieces of iron are assembled. eBay operates in a slightly different area: trying to understand how to buy and sell the millions of items that pass through its networks every day. It is one of the largest online stores in the world and needs a fast, effective method comb through 50 petabytes of data to separate the wheat from the chaff and highlight real market signals from the noise.

Daily successful analysis of tens of thousands of variables and millions of transactions requires the use of the latest equipment and the most high-tech approaches. Whereas in the past eBay used Excel charts to classify trends and then emailed them to teams, today there is no need for such complex chains: the ERP system does everything. With the development of the Internet of Things, the very existence of such objects has become possible.

Of course, there are many more amazing plants, factories and production facilities in our world. But it was impossible to fit them all into a list of ten, so if we undeservedly forgot someone, write in the comments.

This car factory in Ulsan, South Korea is rightfully considered the best evidence of the Korean "economic miracle".

In 1973, Hyundai announced construction of this plant, destined to become the world's largest automobile manufacturer, in 1973. By that time, Hyundai itself had existed for 6 years in close cooperation with Ford.

The plant in Ulsan is not only the first, but also the main plant of Hyundai Motor at the moment. Since 2006, it has been considered the largest car manufacturer in the world. One can even say that this plant is the cornerstone of the South Korean automotive industry. It covers an area of ​​500 hectares, which is almost equal to 5 square kilometers. Five thousand six hundred new cars roll off the assembly line every day. The plant can produce one and a half million cars, minivans and SUVs. The plant employs thirty-four thousand employees.

The plant is divided into five sites, each of which produces certain "own" brands of cars. This is an autonomous, self-sufficient site for the production of cars.

Of course, such a complex enterprise cannot do without the appropriate infrastructure to ensure its operation. The plant is equipped with a port where three ships can moor at the same time. This enterprise, a true flagship of the automotive industry in South Korea, but throughout the world, makes sure that the environment suffers as little as possible from its activities: the plant is equipped with a whole separate factory that purifies wastewater before it enters the environment . The plant also has its own hospital and fire department.

Independent statistical agencies report that the world is gradually improving, at least most manufacturers show a decrease in the number of defects per 100 machines.

In particular, according to the results of the annual study of the J.D. Power, in 2008, almost three-quarters of the 36 brands surveyed showed an increase in the quality of new cars. On average, the quality of cars rolled off the assembly line and operated for three months improved from 125 defects per 100 vehicles in 2007 to 118 problems per 100 vehicles in 2008. Japanese models - Civic, CR-V and Fit - lead in 2008 in terms of reliability in several market segments at once. Also in the US, two awards for the best quality in the segment received (Malibu and Silverado), (Dakota and Durango), (EX-series and M-series), (LS and RX) and (CLK-class and E-class). The Porsche 911 has the fewest quality problems of any car in the US market, with only 67 defects per 100 new cars. In addition, the best in their classes are ford van E-Series, the large Lincoln Navigator SUV, the Mazda MX-5 Miata roadster, the Pontiac Grand Prix sedan and the huge Toyota Sequoia SUV.

Quality research for new cars serves as a benchmark for the automotive industry. It is the initial quality indicator that will be an excellent predictor of long-term reliability, which can have a significant impact on the choice of buyers in favor of a particular company. The study covers two areas of problems: design miscalculations and defects in the production of cars. To some extent, based on such ratings, manufacturers adjust the design and production process of their models. The study concludes that 86 percent of the improvement in product quality is due to the achievements of automakers in eliminating defects and malfunctions on the assembly line and within production processes. Minimizing design issues continues to be a major challenge for the industry, especially as navigation, wireless communication systems, advanced entertainment devices, and voice control systems are becoming increasingly common in today's vehicles.

Along with J.D. Power also investigates the factories where they are produced. According to the results of the study, the best of the assembly automobile enterprises are assigned something like “honorary titles”. As a criterion for evaluating plants, an average estimate of the number of cars coming off the assembly line of all models produced per 100 is used. Moreover, these are only manufacturing defects and malfunctions that are not related to design flaws. Automobile enterprises are divided into groups depending on the location. The most “defect-free” were car factories - the leaders of the European group, the best of Japanese factories showed themselves a little worse, and even worse -.

In 2008, the highest rank "Platinum" in the field of quality among manufacturers Vehicle receives assembly plant Mercedes-Benz in Sindelfingen (Germany), which is seen in the least number of defects and malfunctions. The average value for all models produced here is only 33 defects per 100 vehicles. The plant produces Mercedes-Benz CL-Class, CLS-Class, sedans and station wagons E-Class and representative Mercedes-Benz S-class.

Among the North American plants, the “Gold” rating deserved Toyota plant in Mexico, admitting Toyota pickups Tacoma, with 42 defects per 100 cars produced. The plant also became “Silver” Toyota, located in Texas and producing another pickup truck -. The third, “bronze”, was the General Motors plant in Kansas, which produces the Chevrolet Malibu and Saturn Aura models.

Among the best Japanese plants are two more Toyota enterprises. One of them, in Fujimatsu, makes the Prius, and the second specializes in all Lexus models and Toyota RAV4 SUVs, Land cruiser and 4Runner. Another Japanese plant, Tochigi, rated Silver is owned by Nissan. There they do Infinity sedans G-series and M-series, as well as sports nissan model 350Z.

The three European plants were headed by the already mentioned Mercedes-Benz plant in Sindelfingen. The second was the Porsche plant in Stuttgart (produces the Porsche 911 in coupe and cabriolet bodies) with 37 defects per 100 vehicles. The BMW plant in Regensburg has become “bronze”, all modifications are made there.

The best car assembly plants in 2008 in terms of product quality
(number of defects per 100 cars produced)

It should be noted that all factories themselves keep statistics of defects on their conveyors. Naturally, this also applies to the assembly plants of foreign companies in Russia. Detailed statistics are often posted right in the shops, but, of course, the information that is shown there is strictly confidential. Therefore, when evaluating plants, it is necessary to use indirect methods, tracking the malfunctions of produced cars already in operation.

Although collected by J.D. Power statistics has identified the world's best plants with its prestigious annual Founder's Award in 2008 J.D. Power handed over to a completely different plant. At the end of September, the company's assembly plant in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada, received the award "for its long-standing commitment to the production of high-quality vehicles."

The Founder's Award is an award. which is given to individuals or companies that demonstrate dedication and commitment to continually improving customer service. In the 40-year history of the award, only 22 companies and individuals have been able to receive it.

The Oshawa Automotive Assembly Plant is one of the largest automotive manufacturing facilities in the world. It produces various models General Motors for the past 55 years. The plant has received several awards for quality, including J.D. Power, it became "Gold" in 2002, 2003, 2005 and 2006, and also "Silver" in 2005 and 2007.

This factory has an area of ​​more than 930,000 square meters. m and more than 4800 employees. He currently produces models - the pride of GM: and Buick LaCrosse. At the end of 2008, on the new “flexible” line Flex, the production of new Chevrolet generations Camaro.

Kirill Orlov

If you decide to purchase new car, then you should pay attention not only to its characteristics, but also to study the information about the manufacturer. Nowadays, the vast majority of enterprises are part of concerns, and do not work alone.

The term "concern" has German-English roots, but its beginning was found in Latin, where the word meant "mix". The world's first concern was founded during the reign of the Florentine figure Cosimo de Medici, who was actively transporting goods to Africa and Asia. Once Lee Yakkoka, the famous American manager, said that in the twenty-first century the world market for the automotive industry will be controlled by just a couple of companies. In his judgments, he relied solely on world trends, so his prediction came true with the highest accuracy, although it seems to many that a large number of independent car manufacturers operate in our world. In reality, there are certain alliances, which include automakers.

According to the results of the past 2015, the top 3 world concerns include the American group of companies General Motors, the German alliance Volkswagen Konzern and the largest Japanese automotive association - Toyota Motor Corporation. The GM brand boasted a record level of sales, having sold about ten million cars of its “wards” brands. Consider which brands belong to which concerns for 2016.

General Motors: Leader or Bankrupt

General Motors has come a long and thorny path of its formation. For a long seventy-seven years, no other automaker could surpass its sales level, although in 2009 the management declared bankruptcy. A lot has changed since then. At the moment, General Motors includes such brands as Daewoo Alpheon (Daewoo Alpheon), Buick (Buick), Cadillac (Cadillac), Chevrolet (Chevrolet), GMC (GMC), Holden (Holden), Opel (Opel) and Vauxhall ( Vauxhall). GM also maintains constant cooperation with brands such as Fiat (Fiat), Alfa Romeo (Alfa Romeo), Lancia (Lancia), Ferrari (Ferrari), Maserati (Maserati), Subaru (Subaru), Isuzu (Isuzu) and Suzuki (Suzuki) . The company, whose main shareholders are the Department of the Treasury and the Amalgamated Union of the United States of America, is moving forward steadily, developing its production and creating new, more advanced car models. The production facilities of the corporation are located in thirty-five countries, while cars are in demand in almost two hundred states.

One of the latest developments of General Motors is the GMC Terrain. The debut show of the updated car was carried out in the spring of 2015. However, there were no changes from the technical part, the restyling touched only on the external and internal designs. Also recently, the world saw the second generation of pickups GMC Canyon Extended Cab and GMC Canyon Crew Cab. In 2016, the release of the next modernization of the car is expected.




Volkswagen AG: development no matter what

Another world famous association automotive companies is the Volkswagen Group. Few people know that the founder of the company is the German designer Ferdinand Porsche. At the end of the Second World War, the management of the factories passed into the hands of the British administration, and then Lower Saxony began to head the limited liability company, thanks to which, under a well-known brand, the production of food products, as well as the provision of services in the field of finance and logistics, began. The concern owes its current success to the excellent crisis manager Ferdinand Piech. As of today, Volkswagen Konzern is made up of 342 companies, among which are Volkswagen, Audi, Seat, Skoda, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini , Scania (Scania), Man (MAN), Porsche (Porsche), Ducati (Ducati) and so on. Even despite the global crisis, in 2009 the company managed to increase its profit by selling more than six million cars. At forty-six Volkswagen plants, about twenty-six and a half thousand cars are produced daily.




The corporation has always been distinguished by very capacious slogans, the main of which is “Das Auto” (“This is a car”), which is both simple and rather defiant, suggesting that other vehicles cannot bear the proud title of “car”.

The spring of 2015 was very fruitful for the company - an updated wagon was introduced in March Volkswagen Passat The eighth generation Alltrack, equipped with skid plates, an adapted chassis with off-road modes, increased towing ability. Improvements have not been made in the electronic part either - the picture received from the rear view camera is displayed on the screen, along with hints about changing the trajectory of movement. If necessary, the system itself can adjust the steering part.




Modernization did not go past Volkswagen Jetta Hybrid - the aerodynamics of the car has significantly improved, the drag coefficient has decreased.

Toyota Motor Corporation: drive the dream

Among the top three automobile concerns, Toyota Motor Corporation was founded the latest. Initially, the company produced looms using a patented technology, according to which, in the event of a problem, the equipment had a self-shutdown function. After the sale of the patent, Sakichi Toyoda received start-up capital for a new business. Having visited Europe and America, the Japanese firmly decided to develop the automotive industry in his country. The company was doomed from the start. Even her name was slightly corrected so that when written in katakana, the word consisted of eight strokes, and eight, as you know, is considered a lucky number. Production has developed very dynamically. In 1962, the world saw the millionth car, and just ten years later, the ten millionth. By 1992, every second inhabitant of the sakura country had a branded car in the garage. In 2009, for the first time in fifty-nine years Toyota finished the year at a loss. Now all the difficulties are in the distant past. Brand cars are distinguished by ergonomics, reliability and unique design.

Toyota can safely boast of a collection of brands, among which are Subaru (Subaru) and Lexus (Lexus).

Among the largest corporations, Toyota has completed the largest amount of work in the field of restyling cars over the past year. It was felt by such models as Toyota Auris, Toyota Auris Touring Sports, Toyota Auris Touring Sports Hybrid, Toyota Avensis, Toyota Avensis Wagon, Toyota Prius+, Toyota Land Cruiser 200, Toyota Alphard. The premiere of the serial version was the Toyota RAV4 Hybrid with impeccable quality of the technical part of the power plants.

Moscow, October 18 - “Vesti. Economy". In 2017, more than 80 million passenger cars. Below we will talk about the 10 countries that produce the most cars.

Automotive production in 2017: 23,554,031 Automotive production in China grew, however marginally, by only 4.4% in 2017.

In general, the production volume reached 23.6 million vehicles.

However, China remains the leader in the production of passenger cars in the global market.

Vehicle production in 2017: 16,957,230 Nearly 17 million passenger vehicles were produced in the EU last year. For the first time since the 2007 crisis, the European auto industry reached pre-crisis levels.

The European Union remained in second place in terms of passenger car production, with Europe accounting for 21% of the global volume in 2017.

High quality Japanese cars famous all over the world. Due to reliability and quality, Japanese vehicles are considered among the best. 4. USA Vehicles produced in 2017: 8,081,623 Last year, US production declined significantly, by 11.5%. The total number of vehicles produced exceeded 8 million, almost 1 million less than in 2016.

The US auto industry is dominated by the Big Detroit Three - the three largest American automotive companies based in Detroit (Michigan), or in its immediate vicinity - General Motors, Ford Motor Company and FCA. 5. India

Vehicles produced in 2017: 3,886,293 India's automotive industry accounts for 7.1% of the country's gross domestic product (GDP).

At the same time, India is an exporter of passenger cars and has strong expectations of export growth in the near future.

India supplanted South Korea from fifth place to become the fifth largest car manufacturer in the world. 6. South Korea

Vehicle production in 2017: 3,783,030 South Korea is today one of the most advanced vehicle manufacturing countries in the world.

South Korean automakers from the very beginning of their activities were aimed at competing with German, Japanese and American car brands.

Vehicles produced in 2017: 2,936,509 The main determining factor in the development of the Mexican auto industry is the presence of a powerful northern neighbor, the United States.

It is worth noting that the Mexican car is not some kind of national product, interesting only to tourists as a colorful means of transportation.

In this part of the North American continent, cars of famous world brands are produced.

Such monsters currently have their own production in the country automotive market like DaimlerChrisyler AG, General Motors, Volkswagen AG, Ford Motor and Nissan. 8. Brazil

Vehicles produced in 2017: 2,277,604 The Brazilian automotive industry is today one of the world's leading in terms of the number of vehicles produced.

Despite the fact that the active development of the Brazilian auto industry began only in the 1960s, measures of strict protection of the domestic market from imports allow Brazil to maintain significant volumes of domestic production and outperform many countries with a longer history of development of the automotive industry, in particular the UK, Russia and France .

Another feature of the Brazilian auto industry is the long-term production of outdated models of both the national and global auto industry in a modern design. 9. Canada

Vehicles produced in 2017: 2,165,740 automotive manufacturers like Ford and Toyota.

The automotive market in Canada is characterized by large volumes of production.

Most of its growth comes from overseas affiliates and subsidiaries of Japanese and American companies. 10. Iran

Vehicles produced in 2017: 1,408,398 Iran's automotive industry is the third most active industrial sector in the country, after oil and gas, accounting for 10% of Iran's GDP.

Iranian manufacturers currently produce six different types of vehicles, including cars, SUVs, trucks, buses, minibuses and pickups.

The automotive sector directly employs about 500,000 people (approximately 2.3% of the workforce).

About 75% of local production is passenger cars and pickup truck production is about 15%.