Roger Fingas
Apple's primary manufacturing partner, Foxconn, has replaced 60,000 people with robots at a single factory in Kunshan, China, a report said on Wednesday.
The factory's workforce shrunk from 110,000 people to just 50,000, the South China Morning Post said, noting that as many as 600 companies in Kunshan have similar plans. It's worried that automation could potentially have a devastating impact on the region's population, comprised mostly of migrant workers.
Foxconn has been working to deploy robots in its factories for some time. Although each machine is expensive upfront, the benefit to management is reduced labor costs, which can in turn mean stable prices for client electronics corporations like Apple.
The Post did not say what Foxconn manufactures at its Kunshan plant, but last year companies in the area are said to have built approximately 51 million laptops and 20 million smartphones.
Foxconn factories are likely to become increasingly automated, not only in an attempt to stave off the impact of better Chinese labor standards, but also to keep up with Apple demand, since Foxconn regularly hires extra labor en masse to prepare for iPhone launches.
Apple itself has become more invested in robotics. In March it unveiled a robot called "Liam," designed to quickly and efficiently tear down devices for recycling.
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85 Comments
If manufacturing becomes more automated and relies less on human workers, is there any reason to continue to do it in China?
FWIW Foxconn's robotics partner was reported to be Google.
Per the WSJ several months ago:
"...the partnership makes sense as Foxconn, the world’s largest contract manufacturer of electronics devices, can provide Google the best testing ground for its new robotics technology. They said Google is expected to build a new robotic operating system for manufacturers, just like the Android operating system for mobile computing devices. A successful robotics operating system would further strengthen Google’s position in the technology industry.
“Foxconn needs Google’s help to step up automation at its factories as the company has the lowest sales per employee among the contract makers, given its large workforce,” said Wanli Wang, an analyst at CIMB Securities. “Using robots to replace human workers would be the next big thing in the technology industry."
So the "They're exporting jobs to China!" party line is now moot?
Fast food chains will be doing the same cause of $15/hr minimum wage.