A new report from Nikkei’s Asian Review offers a behind-the-scenes look at Sony’s PlayStation manufacturing plant in Japan. One of the most notable conclusions is that the process of making a PlayStation console is now largely automated, it is true, robots are building game consoles.
The report says that this advanced automation enables the PlayStation manufacturing plant in Kisarazu to assemble a PlayStation 4 console every 30 seconds.
There are humans involved in the process with limited capacity: two humans put bare motherboards on the assembly line, and two others package the end consoles once they’re done.
Sony uses the Mitsubishi Electric robots for the actual assembly of the PS4 consoles. A total of 26 robots are assigned to make PlayStation consoles at the plant, and some processes involve two robots working together to complete tasks. An example is that one robot will hold a cable, while another will twist it.
The new heavy robot assembly line at Kisarazu was completed in 2018. Presumably it will be the same manufacturing line that creates the PlayStation 5 consoles that will be released later this year.
In addition to the new PS5, Sony will continue to manufacture the PS4 and PS4 Pro models, along with the PS5-only digital edition. Robots will make this process faster and more efficient. No one cited in history is concerned that robots will become sensitive and outperform the factory despite outperforming their human-produced counterparts by a significant margin.
