Will dark factories brighten Asean’s manufacturing future?

AN ELECTRIC vehicle factory in Shanghai took two-and-a-half years to produce its first million cars. After becoming 95 per cent automated, it took just 12 months to produce its next million.

A next-generation Korean electronics factory producing high-end semiconductor packages halved its workforce with the goal of becoming fully unmanned by leveraging artificial intelligence (AI), deep learning, robotics and digital twin technology.

Such breakthroughs in productivity levels in the manufacturing sector point to a new trend in the making: “dark factories” or “lights-out factories” that are fully automated facilities running 24/7 without human intervention.