Beijing | invidis recently visited BOE, the world’s largest panel manufacturer. One of BOE’s many billion-euro factories is located on the outskirts of Beijing, where open-frame LCD displays are produced. These displays are then used by nearly all major brand manufacturers in their products.
A 90-minute cab ride from a downtown hotel ends at a windowless factory in an industrial park on the outskirts of Beijing. Here, a five-story Generation 8.5 LCD factory runs 24/7, churning out thousands of displays automatically. BOE has invested billions of euros to build one of its eleven LCD factories in this location. Only a small team of employees is needed to run the three-shift operation that supplies the global display market with open-frame displays.
In addition to the eleven LCD factories, BOE has three OLED factories in China, with another four under construction. Most of these are in the south, where the bulk of the world’s electronic devices and components are made.
As the world’s largest display manufacturer, BOE dominates major display markets like smartphones, tablets, notebooks, monitors, and large-format displays. Its factories produce everything from LCD and OLED to Micro OLED and MicroLED displays.
BOE has become the go-to supplier for display components, so much so that companies like Samsung, LG, and Sharp have scaled back or even stopped their own large-format display production. Today, BOE makes every second open-frame LCD display installed worldwide. This huge scale has required investments of around 100 billion euros.
Like solar energy and electric vehicle batteries, the display industry is a key sector backed by the Chinese government. These days, the display market is mostly led by manufacturers from China and Taiwan.
Who does what?
The roles are pretty straightforward in the display industry. BOE and similar companies produce open-frame LCDs, while display manufacturers handle the assembly of control electronics, the SoC, sensors, speakers, and the housing. This assembly process usually takes only about 15 minutes. Display manufacturers are also responsible for the operating system and software functions, which are key areas for differentiation.
For customs reasons, TV assembly is often done closer to the sales market. For example, in Poland, Hungary, or Slovakia for the EU, and in Mexico for the USA. On the other hand, professional screens, like those used in digital signage projects, are less affected by customs regulations because they do not include TV receivers. As a result, these screens are often assembled in Asia for global delivery. However, in the future, assembly might shift to the EU and Mexico if economic policies change, assuming there is enough capacity to support it.
Fully automated production
The LCD production lines are a sight to behold. Massive robots transport 2.5 x 2.2 meter mother glasses from one processing stage to the next every second, moving through clean rooms spread across several floors. These clean rooms are bathed in yellow light to protect the sensitive materials and processes from the harmful effects of blue and UV light during production.
The size of the mother glass defines the factory generation. BOE operates LCD factories up to generation 10.5, which processes mother glass as large as 3.77 x 2.94 meters. The goal is to maximize the number of displays produced from each mother glass. This is one reason why the industry prefers standardized 16:9 aspect ratios.
Production supported by AI and a digital twin
While BOE’s B4 LCD factory on the outskirts of Beijing doesn’t produce the largest mother glasses in the company, it is one of the most advanced smart factories. All KPIs are displayed on massive command-and-control LEDs, and AI tools help detect potential production issues before they lead to costly mistakes.
The factory uses a digital twin, which can also be explored in a simplified version at the BOE showroom. This digital twin simulates the entire production process, with the goal of maximizing yield and efficiency.
