Hikvision Video On Their Factory, Production Line And Warehouse

JH
John Honovich
May 25, 2017
IPVM

This is a well done and informative marketing video from Hikvision, it concentrates on their warehouse robot but it shows quite a significant part of their overall warehouse and some of their production facility. Video embedded inside:

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JH
John Honovich
May 25, 2017
IPVM

A few screencaps of note.

Physical overviews:

Robots carrying material / good to production:

Production floor:

Products coming down line:

Robots carrying good to warehouse:

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UI
Undisclosed Integrator #1
May 25, 2017

Very impressive.  2 thoughts:  Their investment in internal logistics is incredible in that it is not their core business, and (related) or is it?  Those appeared to be "HIKvision" robots.  

JH
John Honovich
May 25, 2017
IPVM

Hikvision is also selling the Hikvision warehouse robots to others. This was featured in a Chinese government video covered here. I assume part of the warehouse robot is that it solves an internal problem and part is that Hikvision has been seeking diversification from video into drones, access control, etc.

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MC
Marty Calhoun
May 25, 2017
IPVMU Certified

Well, well seems like that "race to bottom" company that is doing everything the wrong way compared to the old industry standards, may be doing it because they have developed a factory and production floor where robots do the majority of the work, with little human intervention. Once you own the Robots, the land and the factory and build cameras with few people, there might be "unheard of"  reasons why they are so reasonably priced. Being 99% automated from material delivery to shipping product is the "Chinese way" of doing it. So all you folks that have though Hikvision was a  "sweat shop" on the bad side of China, eat your heart out.

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JH
John Honovich
May 25, 2017
IPVM

company that is doing everything the wrong way

Marty, that's a straw man. Hikvision does lots of things well, IPVM acknowledges that, most reasonable people acknowledge that.

Some important things for an internationally branded selling business they do quite poorly at.

One can respect the scale and sophistication of their hardware manufacturing and still criticize other aspects of their business.

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UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #2
May 26, 2017

I like Marty's passion and this is one of your best responses I've read.  

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Avatar
Kyle Folger
May 26, 2017
IPVMU Certified

I respect Marty's passion as well but at times it gets fairly redundant because everything is always positive. I wish I could say I liked everything about every company I have ever done business with. Amazon impresses me but there are some aspects I don't like.

I try to keep an open mind in camera selection and try to not be tied specifically to only one camera manufacturer. Hikvision's video reminds me of watching many of the Amazon logistics videos. It's even better seeing robots and automation in person. Just because a company has excelled in logistics and production doesn't mean they aren't involved in a race to the bottom. Hikvision does make really inexpensive products that work. I typically never install their cheapest product because it generally doesn't fit the application. It's there, however, and it sells well, especially to consumers that are shopping only on price.

Hikvision also makes very expensive products. Their multisensor cameras with 8 sensors is impressive, but it isn't inexpensive. The Axis version with 4 sensors works quite well and is more affordable at this point. It also allows more flexibility in adjusting the individual sensors.

The Hikvision Darkfighter cameras are pretty impressive as well. They are not inexpensive either.

I focus mainly on Hikvision's products and what they can do. Hikvision doesn't have the camera for every situation at this point. All these good things are speaking to good things about Hikvision and their products. John mentioned this positive piece and I knew it would still get brought down with a negative comment to turn the discussion into a never ending argument.

I don't care for the Chinese government ownership though, but not enough to not use the product except in places where it might be restricted such as government projects. I don't care for Hikvision's marketing strategy either. I saw one of the most recent catalogs and still don't understand the Art of Surveillance. I think there is an art to designing a system and installing it with excellence but more in the way bending conduit is an art not necessarily dancing. Dancing isn't involved when I install a camera.

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JH
John Honovich
May 26, 2017
IPVM

John mentioned this positive piece and I knew it would still get brought down with a negative comment to turn the discussion into a never ending argument.

Lol, I had that feeling too. Some people just can't take a compliment! ;)

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UI
Undisclosed Integrator #3
May 26, 2017

Because if you criticize one thing about a company it means everything about that company is terrible and horrific? Damn Marty, you sound like my wife.

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U
Undisclosed #6
Jun 05, 2017

Being 99% automated from material delivery to shipping product is the "Chinese way" of doing it.

The above comment from Marty could not be further from the truth. With the exception of a few large companies like Hik and Foxconn most manufacturing in China sees the entire process done with manual labour.

In the CCTV feild there would be thousands of factories and i would be sure that Hik is the only one with this type of setup for the logistics part.

For the assembly part i would also be confident to say that it is still manual labour at Hik. 

At board level it would be automated by SMT machines.

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Avatar
John Bazyk
May 26, 2017
Command Corporation • IPVMU Certified

That's pretty cool, looks a lot like their parking system. I am always interested in warehouse/distribution. We do a few facilities that are around a million square feet. The technology in them is incredible. It's amazing how few people staff these buildings yet how much product they push out.

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JH
John Honovich
May 26, 2017
IPVM

It's amazing how few people staff

That's hard to tell from a marketing video. For example, is everything moved by robots? How well do the robots? How often do they break down? How many areas still use humans?

Likewise, I've heard that Hikvision's production is all robots but the video clearly shows many people working on production.

I don't think we are going to get clear answers on this as Hikvision treats with a high level of confidentiality. Again, I do think this is a very good video, certainly from a marketing perspective, but also does give some insight into how they operate.

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Avatar
John Bazyk
May 26, 2017
Command Corporation • IPVMU Certified

Sorry, I actually meant the warehouse/distribution centers we do. I've never been to China so I can't comment on their employee count. But the buildings we do are huge with few employees.

Avatar
Tony Warren
May 26, 2017

Pretty cool video, I searched for hikrobot technology co. ltd and found this: HikRobotics 

I was unaware that they manufactured the robots, also machine vision as well as UAV's, cool stuff.

 

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Avatar
Tony Warren
May 26, 2017

How about a anti-drone "gun"

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JH
John Honovich
May 26, 2017
IPVM

Tony, yep, we have a discussion on that here - The Hikvision Anti-Drone Gun

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Avatar
Tony Warren
May 26, 2017

Sorry, im late to the party.......my bad.

 

Avatar
John Bazyk
May 26, 2017
Command Corporation • IPVMU Certified

I had to spend 5 minutes looking their robotics website. I found this interesting. Who would have ever thought detecting and classifying different types of noodles would need a solution like this?

Instant Noodles Detection and Classification

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U
Undisclosed #4
May 26, 2017

The last thing I want is to do is stir up yet another conspiracy theory, but did anyone else watch the video all the way through and catch this...?

 

Mr. Marty, Chief IPVM Marketing Officer, Hikvision

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U
Undisclosed #4
May 26, 2017

Side note, I still think an IPVM forum titled 'The Misguided Malevolent Musings of a Misinformed Mastermind' should become a reality, despite uncovering that Marty is, in fact, a {redacted}.

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UI
Undisclosed Integrator #3
May 26, 2017

this looks much worse now that its been redacted.

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JH
John Honovich
May 26, 2017
IPVM

I redacted because the statement was factually false. I am sure it was intended as humor but I am giving Marty some extra protection given that he faces a lot of criticism.

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UI
Undisclosed Integrator #3
May 27, 2017

I'll have to agree with you on that.

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UI
Undisclosed Integrator #5
May 28, 2017

I think it would be the most read, most commented/trolled set of posts on IPVM ever.

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JH
John Honovich
May 26, 2017
IPVM

While you are evidently good at photo editing, for the record this is the real clip / person:

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UI
Undisclosed Integrator #3
May 26, 2017

was there really a question as to the validity of the edited picture?

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SD
Shannon Davis
May 29, 2017
IPVMU Certified

But what about when the robots start selling and installing the cameras.. Oh wait that is called SkyNet!!!

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