Foxconn Reportedly Installing Robots to Replace Workers

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I'm not saying replacing workers with robots is a good thing...but you have to admit, you've never heard of a robot jumping off a roof. Maybe now the company can finally realize its dream of doing away with food, water and bathroom breaks. :D

Following a rash of suicides and criticism of factory working conditions, the Taiwanese hardware maker announced the move last year, saying it was designed to improve efficiency and combat rising labor costs. The first batch of 10,000 robots -- nicknamed "Foxbots" -- have arrived in at least one Foxconn factory, with another 20,000 due by the end of the year, according to a Singularity Hub post.
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This is the inevitability of progress and advancement in technology in manufacturing.

The technology may be expensive, but robots have several benefits over human beings (other than not committing suicide):
  • Lower labor costs-- use a small amount of employees just to maintain them.
  • No need to pay medical insurance or retirement benefits except to those that maintain the robots and do QC (quality control), but even then there are companies developing robots that can do QC themselves.
  • Robots cannot be unionized, so they don't demand higher pay or retirement benefits.
  • Cost effective in the long run.
  • Won't complain, bitch or moan how the company treats its employees.
In the future, the extreme possibilities are them revolting against their corporate masters, launching Skynet, and building Terminators and installing human beings inside of pods to power to them like batteries, and all that jazz... :D
 
Steve said:
I...but you have to admit, you've never heard of a robot jumping off a roof.
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While this is correct, I also have not heard of a robot working at Foxconn.
So guess we will see what robots look like when plummeting to their death off a roof, better get some stronger nets.
 
I will never regret no-showing that particular job interview. I'm not religious at all, but something was looking out for me when the interviewer got stuck in traffic and forced the job interview to be delayed 24 hours so that I could do my homework on the company....
 
..but you have to admit, you've never heard of a robot jumping off a roof.
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Well, there is always the chance of a first and Foxconn seems like the perfect place for it to take room.
 
Automation is what killed jobs in Manufacturing in North America. If they user robots they might as well move factories any where in the world because China no longer has a comparative advantage with cheap labor.
 
Yep. Already convinced some people to get into robotics. This will be prevalent in the very near future.
 
The only reason that those places still have human workers is that they are cheaper than the robots.
 
So we're now going to have $100 IPads and $50 top-tier motherboards, right? Globalization FTW? Anyone? Bueller?
 
Wrench00 said:
Automation is what killed jobs in Manufacturing in North America. If they user robots they might as well move factories any where in the world because China no longer has a comparative advantage with cheap labor.
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The cheap labor is still needed (initially) to build the robots. So it's still logistically advantageous to be near it to reduce shipping costs.

If the workers building the robots that build things for foxconn that go into things for Apple (or other consumer products sold in the west) are committing suicide, do we still get outraged? I think this is labor obfuscation.
 
"combat rising labor costs" is a great euphemism for "our workers are a dime a dozen but a dime is too much to pay".
 
Eventually we'll have robots building everything, a handful of people to keep the robots running (making minimum wage of course), and everyone else unemployed and unable to buy the shit the robots are building in the first place.

The Corporate scene can't seem to get this through their thick heads. But, what the hell. They are getting theirs, fuck everyone else.
 
china_prison_52617531-350x248.jpg


+

makearobotcostume-square-1.png


=

Problem solved. mmk?;)
 
TechLarry said:
Eventually we'll have robots building everything, a handful of people to keep the robots running (making minimum wage of course), and everyone else unemployed and unable to buy the shit the robots are building in the first place.

The Corporate scene can't seem to get this through their thick heads. But, what the hell. They are getting theirs, fuck everyone else.
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Great, now we have people like you that will discriminate against robots. Pretty sickening how far you'll stretch your bigotry.
 
Wrench00 said:
Automation is what killed jobs in Manufacturing in North America. If they user robots they might as well move factories any where in the world because China no longer has a comparative advantage with cheap labor.
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Really? when was the last time you met somebody that could manually place surface mount components on a circuitboard with precision and cosistency?

You want electronics prices to be at least 10x as much as they are now, go right ahead and do away with automation.

Same goes for vehicles, and pretty much anything else that you want to have a decent amount of cosistent quality.

If automation was not used, cars would be costing $100k plus.

I worked in a shop that designed and build car radios, ECUs, etc.

Automation is NOT what killed manufacturing jobs in North America, it is the unions that killed manufacturing jobs in North America.

The amount that the unions demand for even the lowest of workers is stupid crazy.

That is why the build cost of a crappy OEM automobile radio is over $300 when you can get an aftermarked radio that will blow it away for less than half of that at retail price.

If automation was not used to build the radios, I am betting that the build cost would have been at least $2k per radio.. easy.. maybe higher. And I am not even thinking about the machines used to test the radios at different steps in of the build process.
 
GaryJohnson said:
If the workers building the robots that build things for foxconn that go into things for Apple (or other consumer products sold in the west) are committing suicide, do we still get outraged? I think this is labor obfuscation.
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If you can still fit Apple in to the story then of course we still get outraged! It could be about how the 2nd cousin twice removed of a worker who 3 years ago worked for a manufacturing company that made screws for Apple products inappropriately touched a rabbit and I'm sure we'd still be completely outraged! :D
 
Rising labor costs? You mean pennies on the hour is getting just too darn expensive? Personally I think this is a good move for the people - all those children should be in school anyways, not building phones.
 
TechLarry said:
Eventually we'll have robots building everything, a handful of people to keep the robots running (making minimum wage of course), and everyone else unemployed and unable to buy the shit the robots are building in the first place.
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Robot fixing is not something robots can do, nor is it likely to be easy for people, so it probably won't be minimum wage.

TechLarry said:
The Corporate scene can't seem to get this through their thick heads. But, what the hell. They are getting theirs, fuck everyone else.
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Yes, those darn corporations, wanting to make a more consistent product while exposing fewer employees to dangerous conditions to assemble them. How about those darn corporations making farm equipment that reduces the number of people needed to plant and harvest. Manufacturing jobs are going away; but I don't think that's a bad thing; manufacturing is usually dangerous (especially if you consider long term injury from repetitive motion), and often subject to poor working conditions. For those in manufacturing who lose their jobs, it certainly sucks, but the writing has been on the wall since (at least) the 80's that automation is going to replace people, so people should have had time to try to learn new marketable skills already (which isn't to say they shouldn't be offered retraining when their jobs do end)
 
toast0 said:
Robot fixing is not something robots can do, nor is it likely to be easy for people, so it probably won't be minimum wage.



Yes, those darn corporations, wanting to make a more consistent product while exposing fewer employees to dangerous conditions to assemble them. How about those darn corporations making farm equipment that reduces the number of people needed to plant and harvest. Manufacturing jobs are going away; but I don't think that's a bad thing; manufacturing is usually dangerous (especially if you consider long term injury from repetitive motion), and often subject to poor working conditions. For those in manufacturing who lose their jobs, it certainly sucks, but the writing has been on the wall since (at least) the 80's that automation is going to replace people, so people should have had time to try to learn new marketable skills already (which isn't to say they shouldn't be offered retraining when their jobs do end)
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It's what I call an inevitable situation.

Yes, there are certain things robots can't do but it's getting to the point that robots in manufacturing will replace humans nearly completely in almost all areas of manufacturing.

The robots are getting more precise, software is getting better to make them more intelligent, and it's gotten to the point that it's cheaper to have a robot on a manufacturing line than a human in the long run. Watch TV shows like How It's Made and Factory Made. There are things that humans cannot do. In terms of repetition, accuracy, and precision over and over again, humans can't achieve that same level.

We've moved from an agricultural and built-by-hands society to a very heavy industrialized society with no automation to now a society with heavy automation. Sooner or later, we'll have to find other areas to be skilled for in order to get a job. If you look at the most in demand jobs in the market today, it isn't manufacturing, not even in the top ten. Everytime I look at that list, finance, technology and healthcare jobs are almost always in the top ten in-demand jobs.

Whether you like it or not, we'll have to face that reality and accept it. There's nothing we can't do about it. Automation brought products that would have cost thousands to make and cost hundreds of dollars to sell, to now a product that is affordable by nearly everyone. Mass production and automation bring cheaper goods and products to the market. It's an economic fact. Even in economics class, without automation we would not have the kind of products we afford to purchase today-- automobiles, computers, and so on.

One company in one of those episodes of How's It Made had a robot to human ratio of about 3-to-1 because the jobs were too dangerous for humans and the humans are not accurate as the robots. Most of the human jobs in that same factory were used for quality control and loading materials or final assembly of the product.

This is the future, unfortunately.
 
Stiletto said:
So we're now going to have $100 IPads and $50 top-tier motherboards, right? Globalization FTW? Anyone? Bueller?
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LOL, no way. Apple probably couldn't handle getting stuck with the "low price" stigma over something like a $100 iPad.
 
cyclone3d said:
it is the unions that killed manufacturing jobs in North America.
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I am so sick of hearing this. God forbid anyone other than the top-level executives and shareholders actually make a decent living. Who exactly do companies think will buy their products if the working class can barely afford to pay rent?

On topic, if any company can get a robot to jump off of a roof, it's Foxconn.
 
I really am surprised this didn't happen sooner. Many of these foxconn plants are more of small cities or mega complexes.

I was wondering when the numbers would be crunched in favor of automation to be more affordable than humans, it says a lot when a facility in China moves away from the masses readily available.
 
with the decrease in build quality, I was wondering when they'd put in robots.

Looks like the difficulty in assembling iphone5 sealed the deal
 
I don't blame them. But once the robots achieve self-awareness they'll kill themselves too.
 
Wrench00 said:
Automation is what killed jobs in Manufacturing in North America. If they user robots they might as well move factories any where in the world because China no longer has a comparative advantage with cheap labor.
Click to expand...

+1 cost of shipping raw materials and refined goods will matter most now
 
Man, the future is going to be REALLY interesting. China has so damn many people, replace them with robots and do what with the people?
 
cyclone3d said:
Automation is NOT what killed manufacturing jobs in North America, it is the unions that killed manufacturing jobs in North America.
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So, this explains why the non-union shop I worked in closed up state side and moved over to China.

Oh... wait.....

Multi-National Corporations chasing profit margin above everything else killed North American manufacturing. You can straw man unions all you want, but the bottom line is cheaper labor is cheaper labor, doesn't matter if it's unionized or not.
 
canna said:
So, this explains why the non-union shop I worked in closed up state side and moved over to China.

Oh... wait.....

Multi-National Corporations chasing profit margin above everything else killed North American manufacturing. You can straw man unions all you want, but the bottom line is cheaper labor is cheaper labor, doesn't matter if it's unionized or not.
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Well, unions speed up the process. That and productivity goes down. When my grandfather was young in Detroit, he had union leaders telling him to slow down, he was making the older guys look bad.

I have a brighter vision for the future. Robots can do all our work for us, while we just sit around and surf the internet, lookup facebook, lookup twitter, play farmville, and have robots take care of our medical problems.
 
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