OPPO was kind enough to let us in on their famed Shenzhen factory. OPPO has been here in the Philippines for three years now, and there’s no sign of stopping.
OPPO is currently the 4th largest international smartphone brand, and the sheer amount of pressure to produce tens of thousands of smartphones a day with the least defect rate is unthinkable.
As a kid, I used to watch a lot of “How Do They Do It?”. I suddenly felt like jumping back in time, finally seeing those machines and processes in person. The whole factory is divided into three sections: the SMT (surface-mount technology) Center, Assembly Line Workshop, and QE (QA tests are done here).
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Table of Contents
SMT Center
Currently, there are 38 motherboard production lines and 25 small plate production lines. In each month’s production capacity is 7.5 million motherboards/25 million sub-boards.
In order to ensure the quality of the motherboards manufactured here, OPPO made 3 key efforts in the SMT workshop. First, every SMT equipment here is from best-in-class manufacturers in the world. Secondly, they’ve set 18 quality inspection processes in total, just to ensure all motherboard delivered to the assembly workshop are of best quality. Thirdly, the quality standard OPPO sets here for the SMT workshop is perhaps the highest in the mobile phone industry and far beyond the national standard in China.
After each machine, we have another machine to verify the products produced by the previous machine are qualified. In the mounting line, there are three automatic inspection procedure and one manual inspection procedure to guarantee the welding quality.
The production capacity of each test line is about 10,000 one day, which equals to 2.5 the production capacity of a manual test line.
Assembly Line Workshop
The assembly line workshop for handsets is the place where components of handsets that came from the SMT Center are assembled to be finished products. Up to now, there are total 26 assembly lines in the assembly line workshop.
All the production lines in the assembly line workshop on the third floor are producing R11 and each production line can be divided into 2 segments: assembly segment and testing segment.
QE Lab
This lab is to regularly spot check the handsets from the beginning to mass production so as to manage and control the handset quality.
Lab tests are divided into electrical performance tests, structural tests (destructive, structure-plug), environmental aging test (continuous aging of functional components, adaptability in various environments). The total number of tests is more than 150. Here are some:
Camera test
Earphone Plugging test
Flash test
Micro drop test
The front and back areas of the handset are thrown from a 7cm height 20,000 times respectively, and the handset is also thrown from the other four sides. Each handset is thrown 42,000 times in total.
Screen test
Button click test
As the Power and Volume keys are frequently used, we tap each side key 100,000 times with the 1kg force and tap the fingerprint key 1 million times. If you click buttons 50 times a day, it will take around 6 years to finish all the 100,000 clicks.
VOOC Flash Charge Plugging test
Drop test
The minimum height of the falling handset is 1.0m. The handset will fall from its six surfaces, eight corners, and 12 edges and fall from each surface, corner, and edge twice. If the first drop test is successful, we will conduct the second drop test in the same way as the first one and raise the falling height to 1.5m.
Press test
This test simulates a scenario where the user may press the handset in use against a small object (such as a key) and verifies whether the handset is damaged.
Twisting test
Tumble test
Place the handset in it and randomly rotate the roller 75 times at a rotational speed of 3-5 times per minute (equivalent to tumbling from the 1m height 150 times). The four corners of the handset may be bruised to some degree, yet function failure shall not be allowed, and the ornament and shell shall not be detached or cracked. After the test, the handset will be disassembled to verify for signs of internal structural damage.
Static Electricity test
Rain test
Before conducting the rain test based on the IPX2 waterproofing grade (rainfall 60L/hour, known as moderate rain), we pitch the handset at a 75°angle to any of the four sides. After the test, we wipe the handset clean and verify whether all of the functions are normal. Then, we lay the handset aside for three days to ensure that the water inside the handset evaporates. Finally, we disassemble the handset to verify that the main board BTB and display screen are not corroded.
Salt spray test
We spray the moisture with the salt concentration of 5% onto the surface of the handset and store it in a hot and humid environment (55°C and 95%H). Later, we take the handset out and store it at normal temperature, making it exposed to air. Then, we conduct the complete inspection on the handset.
Environmental work
We place the phones into an extreme high-temp environment of 85℃ for 500 hours. After the test, the functions must be normal and the RF index parameters are within the specified range.
Sweat test
We will prepare artificial sweat, dip a piece of clean cloth in the artificial sweat and wrap the handset with the cloth. Then, we store the handset in a hot and humid environment (55°C and 95%H). 48 hours later, we take the handset out and verify it.
We also test the handset in various environments with daily necessaries such as drink, coffee, and floral water. The environments are closer to those where the handset is used.
Closing Thoughts
Personally, I was surprised and impressed by how much OPPO goes above and beyond the standards just to make their smartphones of quality both in build and functionality. This being my first factory tour overseas was both exhilarating and fresh. Next time you see an OPPO phone hanging out and about, remember these images.
(Supplementary images are courtesy of OPPO)
