Arrival, is creating highly automated "microfactories" where its delivery vans and buses will be assembled by multitasking robots, breaking from the approach pioneered by Henry Ford and used by most of the world's automakers
Employees work the production line at Arrival’s research and development center in Banbury, England on March 21, 2021. Arrival, a developer of electric vans and buses, says it has come up with a cheaper way to build vehicles in small factories but can it deliver on that promise?
Image: Andrew Testa/The New York Times
A small electric vehicle company backed by UPS wants to replace the assembly lines automakers have used for more than a century with something radically different — small factories employing a few hundred workers.
The company, Arrival, is creating highly automated “microfactories” where its delivery vans and buses will be assembled by multitasking robots, breaking from the approach pioneered by Henry Ford and used by most of the world’s automakers. The plants would produce tens of thousands of vehicles a year. That’s far fewer than traditional auto plants, which require 2,000 or more workers and typically produce hundreds of thousands of vehicles a year.
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