What our first cell does today
One production cell in Huston Electric's prefab shop breaks tabs, bends wire and drives screws on its own, supervised. Here is what that means.
We have one production cell. It has worked in Huston Electric's prefab shop in Lafayette, Indiana, since September 2026. This is what it does today.
What does the cell do?
Three jobs. It does each one on its own, while a person supervises.
- Tab breaking. The left arm takes an outlet from a tray, breaks its tabs in a fixture and sets it in a rack.
- Wire bending. The right arm takes a wire from a tray, bends it in a jig and drops it in a bin.
- Screw driving. An arm lowers a screwdriver onto an outlet held in a fixture and drives the screw.
You can watch all three on our home page. The tab breaking and wire bending clips come from a single run of nearly three hours, and play at five times speed. The screw driving clip is sped up too. Each clip says so underneath.
What does "on its own, supervised" mean?
The cell does the job itself: nobody steers the arms. A person is in the shop with it while it runs.
Where does it work?
At Huston Electric, our first customer, in their prefab shop. Harold L. Sloan III is a prefab technician there. The robot is Harold L. Sloan IV.
“My boy. I'm so proud. … He's doing so good.”
Huston Electric has its own film of the shop on YouTube.
What comes next?
We're building Factory Echo in Lafayette, Indiana. It will make outlets, coiled wire and junction boxes for data centers, and it opens at the end of Q1 2027.
The idea behind it is short. One cell learns a job. Every cell repeats it.
Want parts made this way?
If your shop still does this work by hand, write to us. Tell us what the part is, how many you make a month, and what it costs you to make now.