Apple's Attempts to Automate Product Assembly Have Met With Limited Success

[PinkyMacGodess]

We learned that lesson in manufacturing automation back in '80's: Design for automation!

So we simplified everything about our products: Less components/boards, less screws, less cables, made everything snap together.

The end result was that humans could still assemble the product wayyyyyy faster than a line of high-maintenance robots!

Ironic, huh...

Yes, robots aren't good at small precise manufacturing. Not yet. Tactile sense has to get a lot better, and also vision has to dramatically improve. Ironic that we seek to replace humans who are the most advanced and intricate 'machines' in the universe. Maybe acknowledging that and building a society around that is a better idea?

 

[mazz0]

Nope, not that easy, you need to ramp down the force before it reaches the torque cutoff/setting.
Human touch is just better for now, also, as the article explains, *the crews are tiny, we can feel if such a screw goes in in the right way, it's such a small force that I have a hard time believing a machine can do that anytime soon.

*Have you seen the screws in an iPhone, some of them are tiny, like a mm or less, the thread is so fine you can't distinguish it.

We can isolate and manipulate individual subatomic particles, are you really saying we don't have the technology to measure torque and pressure at the scale of an iPhone screw? I'm not saying you're wrong, it's just crazily unintuitive. Is it an issue of the technology exists but is too expensive for factory use, or too large, or something?

 

[MacDaddyPanda]

"Man, I gotta say, ever since we hired that John guy, these machines just haven't been testing as well…"

"Wait, which John?"

"Uh, something with a C in it. Cameron? Connor?"

That made me lol. Thanks. 👍

 

[mazz0]

So stop gluing and screwing things together.

Stop gluing sure, I think a lot of us would like that, but what's the alternative to screwing?

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

So stop gluing and screwing things together.

Or just glue, and make it so the entire thing is filled with glue. From what I've experienced, and comments from others, they are almost there now.
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Stop gluing sure, I think a lot of us would like that, but what's the alternative to screwing?

Spring catches? But then how to disassemble for repair/refurbishment. Um, no easy choices except to continue using human labor it would seem.

 

[Arran]

Or just glue, and make it so the entire thing is filled with glue. From what I've experienced, and comments from others, they are almost there now.

Or magnets.

You just drop all the components in a bag, shake it up and voila! They all snap together and out pops a product!

 

[MacDaddyPanda]

Robot: "What is my purpose?"
Rick Sanchez: "You pass butter."

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

Or magnets.

You just drop all the components in a bag, shake it up and voila! They all snap together and out pops a product!

But, will it blend?

 

[oneMadRssn]

Same thing Tesla discovered when they tried to automate all of the Model 3's production. Robots just aren't precise enough at the moment for some tasks. That will change in the years to come, but it will remain this way for the foreseeable future.

Before Tesla, I remember reading an article that Mercedes-Benz removed a bunch of robots from their assembly line and put people back. For them, the issue was about variation in products. For example, a single line of cars for them might come with one of several different mirror assemblies. Making a seperate line for each permutation of possible trims and options is inefficient, and the robots weren't adequately able to tell apart similar but different parts (e.g., basic mirror, mirror with the turn signal, mirror with the turn-signal and auto-dimming, sports aerodynamic mirror, mirror with chrome accent, etc.) on a car-by-bar basis as compared to humans.

Notice how Tesla has almost no variation among models, other than paint color, interior color, and battery size.

 

[mazz0]

Sofar it’s seen that even if a new parent industry doesn’t drum up as many jobs as the one it’s replacing, the supporting industries fill the gaps, if not exceeding the original amount. Take airlines for example, not that many people comparatively are pilots, but many people work in tourism, as stewards/stewardess, as support staff at airports, etc.

I would imagine if we could perfect automation to the point that it could assemble anything better than humans, we would indeed all be focused on service industries, or living off of some form of basic income system.

Well yeah, that's the kind of change I foresee happening at some point (either that or remove the very concept of money from the provision of essentials like food and housing, and just share these out fairly).

Automating many service sector jobs is hard, and some impossible

Some, certainly, but unless it's all then that's an overall decrease in jobs. And of course, the number of unautomatable tasks is decreasing. Unless you foresee an end to the development of computer intelligence (in which case why do you predict that?) then it's inevitable that a time will arrive when almost any job can be done better by machine.

Re self checkout, that also generates many more jobs then it destroys. Now you’ve got programmers, designers, engineers, tech support, service staff, that all must exist to maintain this industry.

That seems unintuitive. Why would you assume the number of programmers, tech support etc required to produce self checkouts outnumbers the number of people who previously worked on checkouts? A few hundred people could produce those systems and they can replace hundreds of thousands.

 

[TJ82]

Or magnets.

You just drop all the components in a bag, shake it up and voila! They all snap together and out pops a product!

Yes magnets can be wickedly strong, but obvious issues 1 - they're rare earth so that's a no-no, and 2- they screw with electronics!

You're saying that in jest so hope that doesn't sound like I'm one-upping your post! Just wanted to further the convo along, because magnets are an excellent way to stick stuff together otherwise. The greatest I think!

There are a lot products that snap into place, and being a cyclist we're used to those (due to needing to regularly take covers off for charging, mounts etc), but they're all a bit underdeveloped.

Would love to see some brilliant designers go to task on this screw n glue problem and see what they come up with.

Maybe some 11 year old out there will crack it!

 

[Crzyrio]

Interesting....Tim wants to help mankind, help the vulnerable etc. etc. but his company has been striving to come up with ways to reduce the number of workers. I am confident that the robots will regularly send food packages to the families of the workers who are terminated.

That is the whole point of technology to help us increase the efficiency of human kind, so we can do other things with out time instead of mundane tasks.

 

[gnasher729]

Interesting....Tim wants to help mankind, help the vulnerable etc. etc. but his company has been striving to come up with ways to reduce the number of workers. I am confident that the robots will regularly send food packages to the families of the workers who are terminated.

But I thought it was all child slave labour in Chinese work camps. Free the children!

 

[nexusrule]

If they weren't so hard to repair maybe they would be easier to build.

if you made the effort to read even the first third of the article you would have known it’s not the case.

 

[techwhiz]

Who do they think is making the micro circuitry and smaller parts on the inside? It’s not that automation can’t do it it’s that Apple didn’t have the right people to do it. We have the technology both mechanically and software esp with the large advancements in AI.

Exactly.
I'm not buying that it can't be done, Apple just didn't have the right people and knowledge.
The industry has been doing packaging with micro alignment for years.
Stacked dies, automated PCB assembly, placement of resistors so small a human needs assistance to see them.
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Before Tesla, I remember reading an article that Mercedes-Benz removed a bunch of robots from their assembly line and put people back. For them, the issue was about variation in products. For example, a single line of cars for them might come with one of several different mirror assemblies. Making a seperate line for each permutation of possible trims and options is inefficient, and the robots weren't adequately able to tell apart similar but different parts (e.g., basic mirror, mirror with the turn signal, mirror with the turn-signal and auto-dimming, sports aerodynamic mirror, mirror with chrome accent, etc.) on a car-by-bar basis as compared to humans.

QR code solves that.

 

[nexusrule]

Interesting....Tim wants to help mankind, help the vulnerable etc. etc. but his company has been striving to come up with ways to reduce the number of workers. I am confident that the robots will regularly send food packages to the families of the workers who are terminated.

yeah, that’s how the world always worked, we invent things that makes things for us so we can focus on more interesting and challenging tasks and discovery. But I bet you curse every time you turn a lightbulb on, or while driving you pass a power plant or a windmill, or when you enter a boat and discover there are no slaves rowing, and what about those weird contraptions used to eat...who needs forks and knives we have hands for god’s sake...
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Ironic, huh...

Yes, robots aren't good at small precise manufacturing. Not yet. Tactile sense has to get a lot better, and also vision has to dramatically improve. Ironic that we seek to replace humans who are the most advanced and intricate 'machines' in the universe. Maybe acknowledging that and building a society around that is a better idea?

”A society of slaves busy doing manual work? Been there, done that” - Humanity

 

[PC_tech]

Torque wrench. Just sayin.

Torque wrench - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Quite the tool for such tiny screws..

 

[Scottsdale]

If they could achieve this, there would be no reason to manufacture outside the USA. Or less reasons to than usual over $1 per hour pay in China. This would take most Chinese jobs and axe them and give fewer but higher paying engineer and tech jobs to people who work on and oversee robotic assembly machines for future iPhones. Seems like a win-win as the jobs aren’t coming back to USA in terms of manufacturing, but this could be a way. And, it could allow Apple to make products for USA in USA, for China in China, for S America in Brasil, for Europe in Europe, and for India in India. That would make so many more people happy.

 

[lkrupp]

Interesting....Tim wants to help mankind, help the vulnerable etc. etc. but his company has been striving to come up with ways to reduce the number of workers. I am confident that the robots will regularly send food packages to the families of the workers who are terminated.

Tim is likely in favor of guaranteed income provided by the government for those who choose not to work. I wonder how much of his wealth he is prepared to contribute to that task.

 

[omenatarhuri]

People who say that robots and AI will replace all of our jobs are correct. However, their estimates are off by about 100 years.

Indeed our final role in this world will be to build and repair our Digital Overlords.

 

[JPack]

Forget small screws.

No robot today or in the near future can snap together electrical connectors or wiring harnesses. And the iPhone 11 has 15 of them on the logic board.

The things that can be easily automated, like PCB manufacturing and component placement have already been fully automated in China.

 

[Madhatter32]

If they could achieve this, there would be no reason to manufacture outside the USA. Or less reasons to than usual over $1 per hour pay in China. This would take most Chinese jobs and axe them and give fewer but higher paying engineer and tech jobs to people who work on and oversee robotic assembly machines for future iPhones. Seems like a win-win as the jobs aren’t coming back to USA in terms of manufacturing, but this could be a way. And, it could allow Apple to make products for USA in USA, for China in China, for S America in Brasil, for Europe in Europe, and for India in India. That would make so many more people happy.

I agree with you. Innovation in automation would be a way for Apple to become far less reliant on Chinese cheap labor, which is a very good thing for Apple, America and other freedom loving countries generally. There is little moral justification for a company like Apple to be investing so much in China.

 

[ducknalddon]

Only way the iPhone will be made in America is if was automated.

Most of us don't care whether it is made in America. In fact looking at US politics right now I'd favour products being built somewhere else.

 

[cmaier]

But many of the workers who are terminated from assembly line type jobs do not have the skills and will not be trained to take on the higher valued jobs. In North America (and very probably other areas) over the past 20 years the work opportunities for these people (high school graduates or lower education) have been cancelled (many sent off shore). Many of these folks have been left with nothing or having to repeat "And would you like fries with that?" for 8 hours a day.

You don’t solve the problem by keeping unnecessary jobs, though. You solve it by, as a society, ensuring that people DO get trained for higher valued jobs.
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Glad to hear people are not replaceable yet.

I know a few who are.

 

[CarlJ]

But many of the workers who are terminated from assembly line type jobs do not have the skills and will not be trained to take on the higher valued jobs. In North America (and very probably other areas) over the past 20 years the work opportunities for these people (high school graduates or lower education) have been cancelled (many sent off shore). Many of these folks have been left with nothing or having to repeat "And would you like fries with that?" for 8 hours a day.

And who is responsible for them choosing low skills jobs in the first place? Does personal responsibility come into this at any point?

There have been many proposals put forward for retraining these people to do equivalent or higher skilled jobs that are in demand, and oddly, most of these proposals are met with either “no! that’ll cost money!”, or, “just give us our coal mining jobs back!” (etc.). Often these proposals are shot down with cries of, “that’s socialism!!1!”

Spending the day saying, “would you like fries with that?” is a menial job. Are you suggesting that working in a factory doing one of the assembly jobs that could easily be automated (some can, some can’t) is much more rewarding? Should we spend taxpayer money on subsidies to keep an industry like, say, coal mining going when there is less and less demand for the product? How is that better than spending that same money to retrain those workers to work in industries that do have a future?