While PlayStation fans are still scouring the internet for rumors of the PlayStation 5's release date, people all over the world are still purchasing PlayStation 4s. And after all this time, the manufacturers of Sony's 4 PS system have gotten insanely fast at producing these consoles.
PlayStation 4 has sold 110 million units during its lifespan so far, which is a monumental sales number. Not only that, but it's about double the number of approximate Xbox One sales. During that time, the manufacturing process has been refined and sped up, making the amount of time per unit incredibly fast.
The fully-automated, robot-run manufacturing plant near Kisarazu makes a PlayStation 4 every 30 seconds. The assembly line is made almost entirely out of robots, with only two humans to take care of packaging and one to feed motherboards to the machines. This robot-only assembly line was completed in 2018 and has helped to spread the PS4 to homes all over the world. This has allowed the PS4 to become one of the most successful consoles for Sony, its numbers just under the massive 155 million PS2 units sold.
The assembly process is extremely refined and detailed. Most robots that are part of manufacturing can't handle many of the tasks that Sony's army of Mitsubishi Electric robots do, like attaching flexible flat cable with the perfect amount of pressure. But these robots have been specially tuned for just these tasks, making the PS4 the most automated console possible.
While some big changes have been made between each generation of Sony PlayStation consoles, automation hasn't been one of them. One of the reasons why the PlayStation model has been so profitable to Sony is the ability to automate much of the manufacturing. This massive focus of productivity started in 1994 with the PS1 which focused on easy mass production, and continues to this day with the PS5.
With all this focus on speed, productivity, and automation, it has allowed the PS4 to make Sony quite a bit of cash since its release in 2013. The PS4's sales have made Sony about $9-10 million USD in pure profit, making the PlayStation into one of the most important facets of Sony's business, along with music and wearable air conditioners.