Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) have been effectively used to create disease models from patients with complex genetic defects; however, the production of these cells has been limited by the complex, laborious, manual processes involved. Now, Paull et al. describe a fully automated, modular platform that enables the high-throughput production, maintenance and differentiation of iPSCs from skin biopsies and produces high-quality, stable iPSCs with substantially reduced variability compared with manually selected lines.