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Foxconn Robots Proving Unsuitable for iPhone Assembly, Updated Versions in the Works
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So what you are saying, is that Exxon could give the oil away for free and still make bank? Or they could make a penny per gallon and still make billions?
I agree with that partly:
- For assembly, a human is the cheapest and most flexible/intelligent robot there is.
- For calibration/test/setup, robotic stations are quicker and more consistent than humans.
Western industry discovered all this in the 80's when many "experimental" robotic production lines failed to deliver labor savings. It was an expensive experiment. That failure drove companies offshore as they continued to look for cost savings. Offshoring was "Plan B", in effect.
Nah, the Chinese are finding out the hard way what the west found out in the 80's.
Unfortunately you are woefully mis informed. China is already loosing jobs to lower cost countries.
Beyond that robots are used for a number of reasons including cost reductions. A robot can be exceedingly cheap especially if it is part of an automated assembly line.
We don't need an Emperor, we already have a jackass trying to become one, what we need is to revive a willingness to actually manufacture in the USA. Far to many go off shore as it is the low resistance path to manufacturing.
Beyond that robots are used for a number of reasons including cost reductions. A robot can be exceedingly cheap especially if it is part of an automated assembly line.
We don't need an Emperor, we already have a jackass trying to become one, what we need is to revive a willingness to actually manufacture in the USA. Far to many go off shore as it is the low resistance path to manufacturing.
What is hard to believe is that people still think Foxcon workers are getting slave wages. Repeating non sense like a scratched record doesn't make it true. People need to realize there are significant differences in the cost of living between China and the USA.
More ignorance doesn't support your arguments. Show any sound statistics that indicate a suicide rate higher in Foxcons plants vs all of China.
The day USA has an emperor, you could not make such a _______ comment...
Filling the blanks.
When did it become greedy to want to earn an honest living wage?
I'm sure some pushed things too far yet not most.
Question, since you freely insult people, can people freely insult you back? Or an insult thrown at you would bruise your sensibilities?
No, they go offshore because their competitors have. CEOs have stated they'd prefer not to - but they have no choice because their cheaper competitors will kill them otherwise.
All it takes is one antisocial jerk of a CEO to make a s****y move that saves him money and all the others have no choice but to fall in line. They don't like it, but have no choice.
This is an area where government should be involved: Setting and enforcing acceptable ground rules to keep the game clean and working to the benefit of society as a whole.
It's a global economy. Such idea would kill apple and give global competitors clear advantage over American companies in the us market
Missing the point
Its not about creating robots to manufacture iPhones, its about making the iPhone manufacturable by robots.
Apple needs to do this to eliminate the human rights issues that surround the manufacture of their devices. Having tens of thousands of humans toil for 12 hours or more a day under constant stress to have enough product ready for an arbitrary shipping date is an inhuman way to manufacture a product, period. Regardless of how Foxconn operates, Apple requires ridiculous manufacturing timelines and quantities of their products and turns a blind eye at how it gets accomplished.
Jony Ives needs to step up and take iPhone design to the next level by crafting it in a way that avoids requiring human touch. Components should be able to sandwich together without the need for connecting ribbon cables or wires for instance.
I think Jony can even make a thinner iPhone if it didn't require human manufacturing because at some point the parts will be too small for human fingers to assemble, so he should really be focusing on design to encourage automated production and future designs of the iPhone.
Also automated assembly could move production back to North America, or create a factory in every market region the iPhone or iPad is sold in. There is no reason for robots in China to make a product for a global market because I can't see it being significantly more costly to have a robot build the product in the same market its sold in. Also rather than Apple keep China flush with jobs why not bring some manufacturing back to America. Even an automated factory needs hundreds of people to keep the process running and coordinate stock, supplies and shipping, so bring those jobs back to countries that need it.
Its not about creating robots to manufacture iPhones, its about making the iPhone manufacturable by robots.
Apple needs to do this to eliminate the human rights issues that surround the manufacture of their devices. Having tens of thousands of humans toil for 12 hours or more a day under constant stress to have enough product ready for an arbitrary shipping date is an inhuman way to manufacture a product, period. Regardless of how Foxconn operates, Apple requires ridiculous manufacturing timelines and quantities of their products and turns a blind eye at how it gets accomplished.
Jony Ives needs to step up and take iPhone design to the next level by crafting it in a way that avoids requiring human touch. Components should be able to sandwich together without the need for connecting ribbon cables or wires for instance.
I think Jony can even make a thinner iPhone if it didn't require human manufacturing because at some point the parts will be too small for human fingers to assemble, so he should really be focusing on design to encourage automated production and future designs of the iPhone.
Also automated assembly could move production back to North America, or create a factory in every market region the iPhone or iPad is sold in. There is no reason for robots in China to make a product for a global market because I can't see it being significantly more costly to have a robot build the product in the same market its sold in. Also rather than Apple keep China flush with jobs why not bring some manufacturing back to America. Even an automated factory needs hundreds of people to keep the process running and coordinate stock, supplies and shipping, so bring those jobs back to countries that need it.
Wouldn't kill them globally. They could still sell as much as they want outside of USA without any worries. Wouldn't kill them in USA either. They just wouldn't make as much profit here. They would still make plenty. And would apply to all companies selling here. Sell 50% of your goods here, make 50% here, or pay tariff. No company has an advantage. I'd even give tax breaks for > 50% made here. So if a company wants to be "loyal" and not greedy, they would make out just fine.
iSlave 2.0
In that case, good luck selling anything to Europe or anywhere else in the world.
Absolutely right, but western industry learned back in the 80's that if you do that, the assembly job becomes so simple that humans can do it even faster than robots!
This. And robots have a high repeatability and a high reproductibility. Much higher than humans. So it's better for the Quality Control of your inventory.
OMG do you realize that Apple has never competed on price, ever? Apple sets the price that all other competitors adjust their products to match. You think we have $1000 cellphones because the technology is expensive to produce and design and Apple is trying to compete with a $1200 competitor's cellphones Apple has 3 - 5x and beyond margins on their retail price vs their component costs, and their resulting profit margin is high simply because their products are made in China.
I agree for stuff sold in Walmart or Target the the CEO of some household goods company has to move manufacturing to China to keep costs down to compete with a competitor that is trying to sell the same products for $0.03 cheaper. When profit margins are low then small changes in production costs can represent a huge competitive advantage or increase in profit.
However when it comes to Apple they set a price that is completely independent of what their competitors prices are set at, and largely Apple has dictated what the average cost of a phone, tablet, laptop or set-top media box costs because their competitors don't mind charging $950 for their flagship phone if Apple is going to charge $1000 for their flagship phone. Apple has turned the CEO of every competitor into greedy ********s because Apple has NEVER focused on value competitive pricing.
Apple can afford to bring manufacturing back to America they just have to suck up some of their obscene profit margin to do so. Tim Cook doesn't want to bring manufacturing back to America because it would cut into the billions in profits Apple makes every year.
Apple doesn't have china manufacturing to avoid labor costs alone. they do it to avoid taxes too.
What I want to see is some exclaim how mean and terrible and aweful Apple is because of all the jobs these robots will eliminate -- while at the same time criticizing Apple for making people work these positions that the robots are replacing.
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They also do it because no american company has the expertise to do such high volume precise manufacturing. Which you want to guess who is responsible for?
American workers didn't get greedy, that's Fox News nonsense. It's just that the prevailing wages in China are SO low, that it makes more sense to manufacture there. American workers just plain could not afford to work for $1/hr or whatever it is they pay the Foxconn workers. We do live in a world economy now, much more so than even 50 years ago, and we'll have to cope with that. Eventually there will have to be a world government and world laws as well, but that's a whole other discussion.