With its profound display technology at its core, AU Optronics leverages its abundant R&D capabilities and innovative technologies, and through its strong digital transformation capabilities, it sets a benchmark in the field of smart manufacturing.
On November 13, AU Optronics held the "Digital Leap Forward, Intelligent Empowerment for the Future 2024 Smart AU Optronics Exhibition" at its Xiamen plant, showcasing AU Optronics' achievements in digital infrastructure, intelligent engine construction, employee empowerment, and the application of smart field technologies in organizational production management processes. The company actively promotes the upgrading of smart manufacturing across the upstream and downstream of the industry chain, realizes an adaptive green production model with intelligent decision-making, and connects with the high-quality development of new productivity.
AUO's Xiamen plant is one of AUO's key manufacturing bases in its global operations deployment. It possesses the capability to develop and manufacture advanced display panels and assemble complete systems, primarily producing desktop and outdoor monitors, televisions, and automotive-related complete systems. In 2023, its annual output value reached RMB 16.2 billion, and its total import and export volume ranked among the top in Fujian Province. In response to the complex and ever-changing market environment, AUO continuously upgrades its automated production equipment, allocating hundreds of millions of RMB annually to new capacity expansion. This includes investing in new desktop monitor assembly businesses in the e-sports gaming sector, and establishing an in-vehicle smart cockpit assembly line and automated, intelligent manufacturing to address the booming development of smart cars, continuously expanding smart cockpit production capacity to seize the opportunities presented by the booming smart mobility industry.
Strengthening the industrial foundation to safeguard high-quality development
Driven by the advancement of new-quality productivity, AU Optronics (AUO) leverages its product, technology, and management capabilities to foster technological innovation and digital empowerment, building new competitive advantages for the industry. AUO Chairman and Group Chief Strategy Officer, Peng Shuanglang, stated, "As the first optoelectronic company to establish itself in the Xiang'an Industrial Zone, AUO has been deeply rooted in Xiamen for over 18 years. We actively attract supply chain partners to jointly invest and expand our operations, serving not only as the operational center for AUO Group's South China business but also laying a solid foundation for building a trillion-yuan optoelectronic industry chain in the Xiamen region. The development of Xiamen's display industry and the construction of its smart manufacturing ecosystem are leading industrial upgrading and sustainable development."
In recent years, AU Optronics Xiamen has relied on the Group's technological accumulation and, based on the company's strategic planning and digital transformation needs, has gradually built a new smart manufacturing model for AU Optronics Xiamen that is industry-leading, with 5G+ABC (ABC: AI + Big Data + Cloud) technology as its core. The "2024 Smart AU Optronics Exhibition" showcased outstanding results through the two core exhibition halls of smart manufacturing and sustainable development.
Digital intelligence empowers precise and efficient productivity
AU Optronics Xiamen has integrated 5G+ABC technologies to connect the entire production management process, streamlining the entire product lifecycle manufacturing process, including R&D, procurement, production management, process, equipment, and quality. This has enabled the company to upgrade its adaptive production mode with features such as digital design, smart supply chain, smart cockpit, full-process equipment management, data-driven optimization, smart online testing, and smart quality control. The company has achieved improvements in key indicators such as 100% 5G coverage, 100% connectivity of key equipment, and a cumulative 66% increase in production efficiency over the past four years (2020-2024).
In the digital design phase, analog simulation technology is used to model and analyze the production process based on process flow and parameters, enabling prototype design and process optimization, improving design efficiency and reducing production costs. In the manufacturing phase, a human-machine collaborative smart cockpit is created, accurately pushing SOPs based on big data calculations, improving efficiency by 96%; AI assistants are used for integrated detection and inspection, inspecting while working, guiding operators to produce good products according to SOPs, reducing the error rate by 95%. In addition, with the help of technologies such as 5G, AIoT, and knowledge graphs, intelligent equipment management can be assisted, realizing on-the-fly management of production information, automatic push of maintenance knowledge, predictive maintenance of equipment, and self-optimization of machine parameters, improving equipment maintenance efficiency by 33% and saving 3,000 hours of machine operation per year. The digital twin platform can capture and communicate data on personnel, machines, raw materials, methods, and environment through a 5G gateway, linking and binding it with 3D models to create a multi-dimensional, highly integrated, and empowering digital workshop with global data visualization, achieving adaptive production.
Deepen green transformation and strive for sustainable development
To drive sustainable development, AU Optronics Xiamen leverages digital technologies to achieve energy conservation and emission reduction, and responds to biodiversity initiatives by reducing plastic consumption. Outstanding achievements include green energy generation, with the entire factory rooftop covered in solar photovoltaic panels, generating over 26 million kWh of solar power annually; the use of industrial recycled water and the establishment of a highly efficient recycled water system, achieving a 98.8% recycling rate for process water; the use of smart meters to optimize energy consumption in some high-energy-consuming equipment and equipment upgrades, resulting in annual energy savings of over 6 million kWh and cumulative savings of over 30 million kWh; and digital empowerment driving diverse plastic reduction practices, utilizing plastic lifecycle management to recycle over 5,000 tons of plastic annually. Furthermore, AU Optronics deeply integrates its sustainable development philosophy into the daily lives of its employees, contributing to environmental sustainability through charitable activities such as tree planting on Arbor Day, environmental plastic reduction exhibitions, marine debris cleanup, and donations of unused books.
Using technological innovation as the core energy to lead the industry to improve quality, efficiency and upgrade benchmark
Since commencing production in Xiamen in 2007, AU Optronics, with strong support from governments at all levels, has become one of the top 100 enterprises in Fujian Province and a prominent contributor to the Torch High-tech Zone. As digital transformation becomes a new driving force for future competitiveness, AU Optronics Xiamen, empowered by its smart manufacturing strategy, has transformed innovative technologies into products and can flexibly allocate high-quality production capacity, supporting innovation across the supply chain. Prioritizing safety and quality, it produces the most high-quality products at the most advantageous cost and fastest speed, achieving outstanding results with annual cost reductions exceeding 12% and efficiency improvements exceeding 12%. In 2022, it was recognized as a "National Green Factory," and in 2023, it was recognized as a "National Smart Manufacturing Demonstration Factory," a National Industrial Internet Pilot Demonstration (5G Factory), a "Provincial Green Supply Chain Management Enterprise," a "Benchmark Enterprise for the Integration and Development of New Generation Information Technology and Manufacturing," and obtained the National Smart Manufacturing Capability Maturity Level 4 Certification in 2024.
In the future, AU Optronics will continue to actively optimize its digital smart factories with next-generation information technology, internally improving efficiency and leveraging its strength as a smart short-chain demonstration factory to collaborate with industry, government, academia, and research institutions to create a green and low-carbon development ecosystem, building the most competitive industrial ecosystem. Externally, based in Xiamen, it will assist industries in digital industrial upgrading. (Image source: AU Optronics)
