Your iPhone and iPad will now be assembled by robots

[Bateluer]

http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/innova...rkforce.robots.mashable/index.html?hpt=te_bn1

(Mashable) -- Foxconn, a company that manufacturers parts used in Apple's iPhone and iPad, said it aims to replace workers with 1 million robots in the next three years, Xinhuanet reports.

The robots will be assigned simple tasks currently done by human workers, such as welding and assembling parts. Foxconn currently has 10,000 robots; in the next year, this number should jump to 300,000 and up to one million in the next three years.

With the move, the company aims to cut labor expenses and improve efficiency,Foxconn CEO Terry Gou said at a workers' dance party on Friday.

Foxconn has a massive operation in China with about 1 million workers. The company caught the headlines after a string of suicides which prompted HP, Apple, Sony and other companies to launch an investigation into Foxconn's business practices.

More recently, an explosion in Foxconn's Chengdu plant in China left two people dead and 16 injured.

That'll teach them to kill themselves, I guess. Though, they do apparently get dance parties?

 

[Fear No Evil]

Seems like pretty much a natural progression. Why have people do it when robots can replace them? The workers need to learn to repair robots.

Kind of ironic that the Chinese are losing their manufacturing sector now as well..

 

[ultimatebob]

If Foxconn's idea of a party is to tell their workers that they're going to be slowly replaced by robots, no wonder their employees are jumping off of buildings.

 

[Red Storm]

So at the workers' dance party, he told said workers that most of them would be replaced by robots within the next few years. What a buzz kill.

 

[Binky]

I didn't realize that it is cost effective to replace a $1/hour worker with a robot.

 

[yh125d]

What makes them think robots can't become depressed like their workers? It'll be a factory full of Marvins

 

[Imp]

I didn't realize that it is cost effective to replace a $1/hour worker with a robot.

I think they're up to $2/hr, hence the cost effectiveness of robots!

 

[Oyeve]

Skynet realized.

 

[Phynaz]

Along with your Xbox, Playstation, DVD player, Gameboy, Droid, HTC?, Television, Router, PC Motherboard, etc...

 

[Cogman]

Along with your Xbox, Playstation, DVD player, Gameboy, Droid, HTC?, Television, Router, PC Motherboard, etc...

CPU, GPU, North bridge, south bridge, glue components.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

Seems like pretty much a natural progression. Why have people do it when robots can replace them? The workers need to learn to repair robots.

Kind of ironic that the Chinese are losing their manufacturing sector now as well..

Because third world workers are cheaper to upkeep than robots + third world upkeepers of robots? They don't have to pay for third world workers to be made either; other people do that for free.

 

[BabaBooey]

Robots do not commit suicide.

 

[styrafoam]

Robots do not commit suicide.

Actually, yeah they do. You can usually put them back together though. Sometimes they kill each other too, thats fun to watch.

 

[hanoverphist]

I didn't realize that it is cost effective to replace a $1/hour worker with a robot.

when one employee can maintain 10 robots, you give them a buck more and reap the savings.

 

[mammador]

I doubt it's just suicides. Less labour costs means a greater likelihood of securing future contracts with Apple. Jobs would thus pay less money to get Foxxconn to build his machines. In turn, this means cheaper Apple products, so I'm not complaining.

 

[yh125d]

I doubt it's just suicides. Less labour costs means a greater likelihood of securing future contracts with Apple. Jobs would thus pay less money to get Foxxconn to build his machines. In turn, this means cheaper Apple products, so I'm not complaining.

You're delusional if you think Apple would pass on the savings to the end user.

 

[ClockerXP]

When you think about the speed at which the robots can work compared to any human, and the volume of product that Apple needs nowadays, robots totally make sense. Plus the quality will be better and more consistent. This is a no-brainer especially given the very controlled environment these parts are in, how small the robots can be and the fact that only one or two products are coming out of these plants... So much easier to do it in this environment rather than in, say, a car assembly plant.

 

[ctmk]

Production speed x100, good QC using high speed camera inspection and minimal human issue... and factories can be anywhere with robots and not limited to just some area with cheap labor.

I think i can assume cheaper tablets and mobile devices after 3 years.

 

[maniac5999]

...Plus the quality will be better and more consistent...

I think that this is the critical factor. Didn't Foxconn recently say how tough it was to manufacture Apple products? When you figure that one bad soldering job by the employee that you're paying $2/hr can turn an iPhone into a $200 pile of ruined parts, robots start to look a lot more attractive.

 

[smartpatrol]

Hopefully this means the next Foxconn dance party will have lots of robots at it.

Although, they only know 2 kinds of dances: the robot, and the robo boogie.