National Geographic’s documentary Superfactories took viewers on a fascinating behind-the-scenes ride through OPPO’s grand India operations, including privileged access to the workings of the brand’s Greater Noida Manufacturing facility that’s spread over 110 acres, employs over 10,000 workers, and currently manufacturers a stunning 50 million phones every year!
The documentary lucidly demonstrates the intricacies and challenges involved in running such a grand production facility, while showcasing OPPO’s commitment to rigidly uphold the highest quality standards at every single step! This commitment stems from the crystal-clear vision of top executives and the R&D Team, which is to simplify technology for customers with meaningful innovation.
The film manages to capture how this desire to improve the lives of its users is now deeply ingrained in the organization culture and will serve as a solid foundation as the brand strives to expand its India operations and double its production from the same facility, hoping to churn out one phone every 3 seconds!
A Mega manufacturing hub that will awe you
This unique glimpse into OPPO’s manufacturing facility shows viewers how the brand has evolved to become one of the largest and most modern mega smartphone manufacturers in the world. The manufacturing in the Greater Noida facility is spread across four major sections – SMT (surface mount technology), Assembly, Storage, and Supply Warehouse. SMT is where motherboards or PCBs, the heart and brain of our phones, come together. These PCBs are then moved to the Assembly section which is the biggest and busiest part of the operation. Each assembly line includes around 60 workers tasked with specific jobs and around 20 test stations where each process is tested and retested.
The supply warehouse is responsible for efficiently feeding the assembly lines to ensure continuous operations. The entire shop floor is a stunning visual of sophisticated machines and attentive personnel working in meticulous synchronization and with stark precision, which truly brings alive the company’s vision to develop new-age technology solutions
And this commitment shows in the way the brand has climbed up the ladder to become one of the top smartphone manufacturers globally. According to a recent report from Canalys, the company witnessed the annual growth rate of over 23%, highest in the smartphone industry. And as NatGeo’s documentary highlights, this success is built entirely on the quality of their phones.
Driving continuous innovation
OPPO’s relentless pursuit of creating innovative technology through quality smartphones for the Indian market has seen many milestones. Engineers and researchers working at Hyderabad R&D center have helped OPPO get over 200 patents ever since the start of the centre in 2018. Not just that, they also helped OPPO become the only brand in the country to successfully complete a WhatsApp video call over a 5G network, while also establishing its first 5G Innovation lab in India to elevate the overall global 5G experience. While most 5G tests in India involved non-standalone models, OPPO developed their solutions on stand-alone platforms – which meant testing devices with an authentic 5G set-up.
All this planning and development is carried out at the company’s Hyderabad office where many researchers scrutinize and thoroughly assess the consumer mindset and specific needs to develop solutions that will be truly beneficial to them, and significantly enhance the user experience. Spearheaded by some of the best series of smartphones that the world has seen, and complemented by its efforts in 5G, OPPO’s dedication to bring the best of global technology to Indian shores shines through in this film.
The road ahead
Elvis Zhou, President, OPPO India has also affirmed on many occasions that the goal is to develop India into a world-class manufacturing hub that can cater to the entire world. OPPO had committed $7 Billion in R&D spread out over three years beginning 2019, and plans to appropriate India’s brightest minds and engineers in order to help stay at the forefront of upcoming trends and to pioneer technological breakthroughs.
In nearly 7 years of its India journey, OPPO is now the dominant contributor to GoI’s Make in India initiative. The company’s belief to create ‘Technology for Mankind, Kindnessfor the World’, is ably manifested in how OPPO has grown its India operations from scratch. You can catch this incredible film -National Geographic’s ‘SuperFactories’ documentary- on OTT platform Hotstar. The film will surely delight you with the technical aspects of making world’s favorite device and leave you in awe of a company that is reinventing the tech landscape, introducing path-breaking innovations at breakneck pace.
