Ola Partners with ABB to Automate Mega-Factory for Electric Scooters

Ola, India’s largest mobility platform and one of the world’s largest ride-hailing companies, has selected ABB as one of its key partners for robotics and automation solutions for its mega-factory in India that will roll out the Ola electric scooter.

Ola’s scooter mega-factory, billed to be the world’s largest scooter manufacturing plant, is expected to be ready and operational in the coming months.

The facility is also expected to be the country’s most automated, with about 5,000 robots and automated guided vehicles in use once the factory is fully operational to its full capacity.

Ola will utilize ABB’s automation solutions in its factory’s key manufacturing process lines, including its painting and welding lines, while the ABB robots will be deployed extensively for the battery and motor assembly lines.

These include ABB’s IRB 5500 paint and IRB 2600 Integrated Dressing robots in its painting and welding lines, and IRB 6700 robots for assembly and material handling in the battery and motor assembly areas.

The ABB robots will be digitally integrated into Ola’s AI-enabled mega-factory, to optimize robot performance, productivity and product quality. The use of ABB’s robots and automation solutions will ensure remote digital connectivity and monitoring of the robots that will ride on Ola’s proprietary AI engine and tech stack.

Bhavish Aggarwal, chairman and group CEO, Ola, said: “We are delighted to bring on board ABB, a global leader in robotics, machine automation and digital services, as a key supplier and partner for robotics and automation solutions that will be deployed at our scooter mega-factory.

“ABB’s solutions will be riding on Ola’s own proprietary AI engine and tech stack embedded in our scooter mega-factory. We are bringing in global expertise and stitching up partnerships that will help us build out our factory in record speed and roll out the first of our electric scooters in the coming months.”

Andrea Cassoni, managing director of general industries at ABB Robotics, says: “Connecting ABB’s robot solutions to Ola’s digital ecosystem will ensure our robots are key components of Ola’s new, advanced facility. This level of automation will enable Ola to consistently achieve their twin objectives of high productivity and high quality.

“This, together with the high levels of flexibility our robot solutions offer, demonstrates how technology can transform manufacturing and ensure Ola’s mega-factory is a great example of a factory of the future, for many years to come.”

Ola is building its mega-factory on Industry 4.0 principles and to be powered by its own proprietary AI Engine and tech stack that will be deeply integrated into all its systems, continuously self-learning and optimizing every aspect of the manufacturing process.

This will provide unprecedented control, automation and quality to the entire operations, especially with Ola’s implementation of cyber-physical and advanced IoE systems.

With an initial annual capacity of 2 million units, Ola’s mega-factory will create 10,000 jobs and serve as the company’s global manufacturing hub for both India and international markets across Europe, UK, Latin America, Australia and New Zealand.

Main picture courtesy of TelematicsWire.net