Earlier this year, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared with us his ten-year plan about developing his own company. He plans to develop not only the social network that he once created, but also to go beyond it. Mark wants to develop not just software, but also physical products that people can touch with their own hands. It is for these purposes that Facebook has created the Area 404 laboratory (the name comes from the famous “Error 404”, which means that the web page was not found), within whose walls ingenious engineers and inventors work all day long.
On the territory of a building the size of half a football field, which you will not meet. Here is a platform for testing virtual reality headsets, experimental models of drones, the latest powerful servers, lasers transmitting data at a distance, and much, much more. Of course, the press was shown only what they could see and photograph. The most secret development of the company Mark Zuckerberg were removed in advance from the building or fenced off from prying eyes. This is understandable: in the age of general copying of other people's ideas and industrial espionage, such negligence can cost the manufacturer billions of dollars.
Inside the laboratory, so massive and heavy production machines, such as a 9-axle drill, fully computer controlled, were installed that they had to disassemble a part of the floor and additionally strengthen the foundation.
The laboratory reigns in perfect order, each instrument lies within the designated square on the table, so that the worker always knows where to look for it. The philosophy of Area 404 is called 5S, which stands for: Sort (sort), Set in order (keep in order), Shine (keep clean), Standartize (standardize) and Sustain (stick to the rules).
The head of Facebook’s engineering division, Jay Wig, is most proud of having an electron microscope in the lab with a 10,000-fold magnification, which experts use to look for defects in various equipment. It took a little more than 9 months for builders and scientists to build and equip a laboratory. Not so long ago, the first team of laboratory staff drove into the building and took their jobs. The creators of Area 404 had two main tasks. The first is to create a large enough space where engineers from all over the company will be able to interact with each other and discuss important issues. The second is to build a high-tech laboratory with all the necessary equipment, in which it will be possible to create and test prototypes of future gadgets of the company.
We suggest you look at the shots that journalists from Techcrunch portal did inside the Area 404 laboratory. The spectacle is really very interesting.
The article is based on materials .
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