ABB says its goal is to make the Shanghai facility the most advanced robotics factory in the world. It will even feature a Research and Development center to accelerate the firm's work in artificial intelligence. In addition, it will widen the types and variants of robots the company can build for Chinese companies, including automakers and electronics manufacturers. China is ABB's second biggest market after the United States, and the new factory could greatly expand its presence in the market. The company expects to open the 75,000-square-foot facility by late 2020.

Swiss robotics company ABB has revealed that it's spending $150 million to build an advanced robotics factory in Shanghai -- one that will use robots to build robots. The company will rely on its YuMi single-arm robots, which it once used to conduct an orchestra, for small parts assembly. It also plans to make extensive use"of its SafeMove2 software in the facility, which it says will allow its YuMi models and other automated machines to safely work in close proximity with human employees. ABB says its goal is to make the Shanghai facility the most advanced robotics factory in the world. It will even feature a Research and Development center to accelerate the firm's work in artificial intelligence.

When you read the word'robot', what comes into your mind? Most people think of a'metal man', a large humanoid figure with a square head, rather like the Tin Man in the film The Wizard of Oz or R2D2 in Star Wars. But if you ask people whether they have come across a robot in their own lives, they will usually describe a robot vacuum cleaner, or lawnmower. Successful robots keep it simple. Robots lawnmowers and vacuum cleaners are really not amazingly intelligent.

Adidas, the German maker of sportswear and equipment, has announced it will start marketing its first series of shoes manufactured by robots in Germany from 2017. More than 20 years after Adidas ceased production activities in Germany and moved them to Asia, chief executive Herbert Hainer unveiled to the press the group's new prototype "Speedfactory" in Ansbach, southern Germany. The 4,600-square-metre plant is still being built but Adidas opened it to the press, pledging to automate shoe production – which is currently done mostly by hand in Asia – and enable the shoes to be made more quickly and closer to its sales outlets. The factory will deliver a first test set of around 500 pairs of shoes from the third quarter of 2016. Large-scale production will begin in 2017 and Adidas was planning a second "Speed Factory" in the United States in the same year, said Hainer.

Adidas (IW 1000/247), the German maker of sportswear and equipment, announced on May 24 that it will start marketing its first series of sportshoes manufactured by robots in Germany from 2017. More than 20 years after Adidas ceased production activities in Germany and moved them to Asia instead, chief executive Herbert Hainer, unveiled to the press the group's new prototype "Speedfactory" in Ansbach in southern Germany. The new state-of-the-art 4,600-square-meter plant is still being built, but Adidas showed off a foretaste of it to the press, promising to automate shoe production, currently done mostly by hand in Asia, and enable the shoes to be made more quickly and closer to its sales outlets. The factory will deliver a first test series of around 500 pairs of shoes to be sold from the third quarter of 2016. How Many Times Has Your Company Started (and Stopped) Implementing Lean?