Apple supplier Foxconn so far up to 40,000 'Foxbots' in China
Apple's main assembly partner, Foxconn, has so far installed 40,000 production robots across China as it looks to minimize the number of people it employs, reports noted on Wednesday.
With the exception of some components like servo motors and speed reducers, the robots are being built entirely in-house, Foxconn's Dai Chia-peng told Taiwan's Central News Agency, as quoted by DigiTimes. It's unclear how many of the so-called "Foxbots" are being used to manufacture Apple products.
The machines are, however, said to be operating an industrial facility in Zhengzhou, a tablet plant in Chengdu, and computer/peripherals plants in Kunshan and Jiashan.
Dai commented that Foxconn is currently manufacturing 10,000 robots per year. Each one can potentially go far towards replacing human labor -- in Kunshan alone, Foxconn is known to have cut 60,000 workers.
Until recently it was often cheaper for Chinese companies to pay thousands or millions of people low wages rather than use robots. Rising labor standards and a lack of interest from young workers, however, has led some firms to make the high upfront investment in automation.
With the exception of some components like servo motors and speed reducers, the robots are being built entirely in-house, Foxconn's Dai Chia-peng told Taiwan's Central News Agency, as quoted by DigiTimes. It's unclear how many of the so-called "Foxbots" are being used to manufacture Apple products.
The machines are, however, said to be operating an industrial facility in Zhengzhou, a tablet plant in Chengdu, and computer/peripherals plants in Kunshan and Jiashan.
Dai commented that Foxconn is currently manufacturing 10,000 robots per year. Each one can potentially go far towards replacing human labor -- in Kunshan alone, Foxconn is known to have cut 60,000 workers.
Until recently it was often cheaper for Chinese companies to pay thousands or millions of people low wages rather than use robots. Rising labor standards and a lack of interest from young workers, however, has led some firms to make the high upfront investment in automation.
Comments
Step 2: Move the factories to the US
I believe Steve Jobs made the argument that the US doesn't have the thousands (or tens of thousands) of automation engineers (my phrase) required to do manufacturing at this scale. I expect the same story would apply here; we don't have the thousands of people who could maintain an army of robots. So, no I don't expect those Foxconn factories to be coming here.
Here's the quote from Jobs:
http://money.cnn.com/2012/10/17/technology/apple-china-jobs/index.html
Steve Jobs, Apple's late CEO, brought the issue up during an October 2010 meeting with President Obama. He called America's lackluster education system an obstacle for Apple, which needed 30,000 industrial engineers to support its on-site factory workers.
"You can't find that many in America to hire," Jobs told the president, according to his biographer, Walter Isaacson. "If you could educate these engineers, we could move more manufacturing plants here."
Guess what comes home to roost? Robots and unemployment.
/headshake
Nicely done. Lol
If there is a problem with robots eliminating jobs, it's the humans who got replaced who didn't predict the dark day of their being so replaced, and/or who didn't prepare themselves for jobs which can't be done by a machine, or at least won't be for a long time, yet.
Anyone can learn anything, any time, regardless of age or circumstances. It simply takes observation, the will to learn, the dedication to learn, and resourcefulness in "making things go right", no matter what.
40,000 is a LOT of robots!
It's not like there's a shortage of people in the US, and I certainly don't believe there's a shortage of motivated/bright people. Getting enough educators/trainers might be tough (not impossible), but I believe that the cost of getting an education is the main factor in this shortage (not a lacklustre education system).
I know the US mindset, in general, is: don't raise my taxes to help others -- I didn't get nothing for free, and neither should anyone else (everyone for themselves). I'm not going to argue against that mindset (though it is one of the reasons why I have no interest in living in the US). I'm simply going to argue that, if not government funded, perhaps corporations could help fund such an initiative since they'd be the ones ultimately benefitting from it.