BEIJING — The six seconds it takes a person to blink, unlock a phone or for the heart to beat several times was all the time required to produce a single smartphone at Xiaomi’s smart factory in Changping here.
The six-second production cycle reflects a high level of industrial precision and system coordination, with key testing processes, including automatic camera autofocus calibration, display brightness and colour checks, battery performance and thermal management, all completed within that timeframe to ensure quality at every stage.
On its highly automated and digitised production lines, robotic arms perform precise operations while integrated systems manage real-time calibration and every six seconds, a smartphone completes its critical production phases and rolls off the line, demonstrating the facility’s efficiency and advanced manufacturing capabilities.
In early December, Xiaomi opened its Changping smartphone factory for the first time to foreign media, specifically Southeast Asian outlets, showcasing its high level of automation and self-developed systems to highlight its manufacturing standards and product reliability ahead of its next-generation REDMI smartphone launch.
The factory is powered by the Xiaomi Hyper Intelligent Manufacturing Platform (IMP), which automatically monitors all production stages, including efficiency, quality and anomalies, while tracking material inventory in real time and triggering automatic replenishment to ensure high output and consistent quality.
REDMI Marketing Director, Xiaomi International Marketing Department Cynthia Chen told Bernama during the visit that while Xiaomi is a household name, most people are unaware of the extensive and sustained research and development (R&D) behind its products.
She said continuous, high-intensity R&D forms the foundation for Xiaomi’s long-term development in product reliability, manufacturing and innovation, adding that since 2016 the company has strategically established a global network of advanced laboratories to strengthen these core capabilities.
According to Chen, the network today spans over 730 laboratories across 11 cities worldwide, covering more than 40,000 square meters, with the Xiaomi Beijing Campus Laboratory, inaugurated in October 2019 standing as its flagship facility.
The campus houses more than 140 individual laboratories within a 12,000-square-meter space, supporting extensive R&D across domains including acoustics, radio frequency (RF), antenna design, electromagnetic compatibility (EMC), baseband, mechanics, optics, touch control, thermal design, power consumption, battery reliability, and software stability.
