Oppo has invested Rs 2,400 crore in its Noida manufacturing facility.
New Delhi: Following the 2020 Galwan incident, Oppo was among the many smartphone companies that were facing protests and boycott calls for being a “Chinese company”. Now Oppo, that had set up its manufacturing facility in Noida in 2016, aims to make India the smartphone’s global export hub in the coming years.
Oppo has invested Rs 2,400 crore in its Noida manufacturing facility that is spread across 110 acres with state-of-the-art machinery and facilities that can manufacture one smartphone every three seconds. Oppo India’s vice president and Research and Development Head, Tasleem Arif, told The Sunday Guardian, “Established in 2016, with the aim to make in India for India, the mega facility has steadily navigated the growth and success of Oppo in India. With over 10,000 strong workforces at the factory, all our devices for Indian consumers are manufactured in India. We have been making heavy investments in areas such as manufacturing and Research and Development to create an ecosystem in all directions and strengthen our commitment towards India. We aim to increase ease of accessibility and create a great experience for our consumers with our efforts towards manufacturing.”
“We have an ongoing investment of Rs 2,400 crore in the Greater Noida manufacturing facility and aim to make India a global export hub for Oppo India. These figures only reflect steady growth in the Indian market,” Arif added.
Asked if the border situation between India and China affected Oppo in the last two years, Arif told this newspaper, “We are a truly multinational company with our footprint across more than 60 countries. Our presence in India is completely local wherein we are manufacturing products locally, generating employment by hiring local talent and investing back in the economy.”
The state-of-the-art manufacturing facility of Oppo in India is divided into four sections, including Assembly, SMT (Surface Mount Technology), Storage, and Supply Warehouse. The super-machines at the SMT section can hold 37,000 micro components per hour.
“No matter how complex a PCB is, through the advanced technology the Oppo team can complete one Printed Circuit Board Assembly or PCBA in 6.25 seconds.” Arif told this newspaper. The manufacturing unit also has 52 rows with 37 assembly stations and 20 test stations that can dispatch hundreds of micro-parts of the smartphone that would be required in 200 smartphones in under 10 minutes. According to Oppo, the Noida facility that brings out one complete smartphone in just three seconds is also equipped with high precision 3D inspection machines (AOI), Electrostatic discharge precautionary clothes, Screen colour calibration equipment, Innovative camera calibration machines, Fingerprint calibration and testing equipment, Antenna 5G test which helps in increasing the efficiency of its workforce and product quality.
“It is this integration of high-end technology and human workforce with high level of expertise, creative and cognitive skills which is enabling us to produce the most loved OPPO smartphones.” Arif said. Oppo which has recently launched its F21 pro series of smartphones have also put this smartphone through a rigorous quality testing that was also witnessed by The Sunday Guardian at the Oppo India’s manufacturing facility in Noida. The F21 pro series smartphone that packs with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 chipset and an AI based triple rear camera-based setup have been put through some 320 experimental tests, and 6 major tests before they are handed over to the next stage of production. Some of the test that this F21 pro series smartphone and almost all other smartphone goes through at the Oppo’s quality testing lab inside the Noida facility includes, across, including waterproofing tests, temperature and humidity tests, drop tests, RF tests, audio tests, radiation tests, battery tests, button pressing tests, plugging tests, twisting tests, light aging tests, cosmetics tests, extreme environment tests, clothing tests, amongst many others.
“Oppo has always taken product quality as a cornerstone of its sustainable, long-term development. In 2017, the company established the OPPO QE Reliability Lab at its Greater Noida factory specifically for the purpose of maintaining high and standardized product quality across the organization.
All Oppo phones kind of goes through a torture testing here, for example, the latest F21 Series was dropped 28,000 times from a height of 10 centimetres–which is considerably more than the 5,000 to10,000 times typically adopted in the industry. The devices are also tested at extreme weather conditions from as low as -40°C, to a warm condition at 75°C for 14 days or 300 hours.” Arif told this correspondent. Arif further added that Oppo phones are put through such rigorous quality testing because according to the company it is the product quality that can completely turn someone into a loyal fan of a brand.