English: Since 1941 Siemens has been producing telephones in the small town of Bocholt, Germany. Today there are still 550 workers making cordless telephones for Gigaset, which separated from Siemens in 2010. In 2018 Gigaset started producing the first smartphone made in Germany.

While the individual electronic parts for the GS185 smart phone are still being imported from Asia the finished product is put together in Bocholt. The special thing about the production is that the phone is put together by 8 employees at a time in a U-production-line with the help of robots or “cobots” by the company Universal Robots. These digital colleagues work collaborat ive, which means that they are involved in some of the production processes that need high technical precision. Other tasks that need more sensitivity are executed by employees. Thus robots and employees work hand in hand. Another robotic arm attaches the label to the smartphone. The employee only has to scan the smart phone. The scan machine issues a beeping sound you can hear at the beginning of the recording. Then he puts the phone into a frame. That is where the work of the robot starts: With a pneumatic system the robotic arm picks up the label from a label supplier (a small machine that issues the labels from a role), turns around and attaches the label with a clicking noise to the smart phone. As this recording was made during running production there are other sounds in the background like the noise of other working processes within the u-production line and the ventilators in the hall. Sound Recordist: Kathinka Engels Photographer: Inke Pickhardt

Video Recordist: Inke Pickhardt