Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), the world’s largest contract electronics maker, plans to add 20 “lighthouse” factories this year to expand into smart manufacturing.
In a virtual SEMICON Taiwan forum on Friday, Hon Hai chief information officer Michael Kung (龔培元) said that lighthouse factories have become a leading indicator of smart manufacturing.
These production facilities are considered “lighthouses” for demonstrating that advanced technologies, such as artificial intelligence and Internet of Things applications, can be used in manufacturing at scale.
Kung said that Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) outside of Taiwan, has intensified its efforts to transform itself through smart manufacturing, adding that the company would add 20 new lighthouse factories this year, after the World Economic Forum (WEF) last year recognized 11 Hon Hai plants with the designation.
The 11 production sites are in China’s Shenzhen and Chengdu, Kung said.
This year, the company would push for the WEF to recognize plants in China’s Wuhan and Zhengzhou as lighthouse factories, he said.
Hon Hai owns a broad production network in China with a workforce of more than 1 million workers, and Shenzhen and Chengdu have become Hon Hai’s hubs to roll out iPhones and other devices for Apple Inc.
In addition to plants in China, Hon Hai has listed sites in Taiwan and Vietnam as potential lighthouse factories, Kung said.
In Taiwan, Hon Hai is assisting a subsidiary to file an application with the WEF to include a plant on the global lighthouse list, he added.
Upgrading production sites into recognized lighthouse factories has improved efficiency, lowered inventories and reduced labor costs, Kung said.
Hon Hai has provided its subsidiaries a standardized production management platform and the necessary technologies to upgrade their plants into lighthouse factories, he said.
Hon Hai vice chairman Jay Lee (李傑) has said that COVID-19 has affected global supply chains with labor shortages and disruptions in component supplies, but emerging technologies used by lighthouse factories such as artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, smart systems and digital systems could help mitigate the problems.
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