And so it begins…
The largest, most powerful and wealthiest electronics manufacturer in the world, Foxconn of China, has fired the first serious volley in what many fear will become an ominous trend in the next few years. The company announced that it has fired 60,000 employees at one of its factories and have replaced that labor with robots.
The company announced that it was going to become future company policy to replace humans with robot workers. Foxconn currently manufacturers everything for Apple and many other worldwide tech and electronics companies and has recently bought Sharp Electronics for $3.5 billion. In addition, Foxconn has agreed to terms with Microsoft to buy its feature phone division and business for $350 million.
Foxconn’s worldwide reputation for treating its workers as little more than slaves is legendary and Apple even had to do some serious PR work recently in an effort to distance itself from manufacturing behemoth. Apple products, however, are still being cranked out at Foxconn factories all over China.
If there is any culture more enamored with robots than China, one would be hard pressed to find one. Replacing humans with robots is a given there and many restaurants and other industries have already assimilated robots into its work forces. Cutting costs and maximizing profits is taken even more seriously in China than even on Wall Street.
The company said it has gone to the robots because it wants no down time or idle time in their manufacturing processes. Seems like Foxconn had little use for the ten minute break or half hour lunch. At least at one of the factories, it won’t have to worry about such profit eaters as those anymore.
Foxconn states that the few humans left in their employ will be trained to handle more involved processes that the robots are not currently capable of handling. Apple, and other Foxconn clients, are not likely to complain about the moves as it just cuts costs and boosts bottom lines as it all trickles down. Foxconn currently produces, among many other items, Sony’s Play Station 4, Samsung’s Galaxy smartphones as well as Apple’s iPads and iPhones.
American manufacturers have, for the most part, been unable to compete in recent years with the low labor costs from China. With robotics clearly making it presence felt, it is only a matter of time when the American, and world, manufacturers, as well as other industries, begin switching out humans for robots in their efforts to make their profits and compete on a world scale.
PHOTO CREDITS: ABC News / The Associated Press / GIZChina