Fair Labor Association Begins Auditing Foxconn's Manufacturing Facilities at Apple's Request

[vvswarup]

translations. Greed and not willing to spend the little extra to move it here.

Also in the US there would require fewer employees to produce the same amount of stuff. Reason being is over in Asia it human labor is cheap so they use humans as robots. If it was done in the US they would use more robots.

Simple fact is they are over there to pad the highers ups bottom lines. Like most companies they do not give a damn about the middle class. It would be up the governments to pass laws more or less forcing companies like Apple to do what they used to do in the pass which is manufacturing in home countries.

The excuse Apple gave is weak at best. It pretty saying they are not willing to invest in the US that have higher labor cost.

Exactly. It is cost-effective to have products assembled in China than in the USA. No corporation that wants to remain viable wastes money. And yes, spending money where it is not needed is waste. That includes manufacturing things in places where it isn't cost-effective to do so.

 

[Big-TDI-Guy]

Robotic assembly (while I enjoy doing it) has a very high capital investment, longer lead / development time, and high cost of retooling / modification.

Couple this with our (now) inferior supply chain infrastructure - and we just cannot compete with China.

The final nail in the coffin is the sheer numbers, and position of the workforce. Tell an American worker they need to work 16 hours a day, and they're most likely to say no, especially without massive remuneration. Meanwhile, everyone I've worked with from overseas - worked at least 12 hour days, and felt that was expected of them.

So a factory in the US, needs to change component X of their product, due to supply problems. Component Y, from a domestic supplier 1,000 miles away, will function just as X, and is cost competitive. However component Y is available only in limited numbers, because there is not enough manufacturing demand domestically. And the manufacturer of component Y cannot get the same lot quantity with their current workforce. Meanwhile, you now have to retool your automated assembly lines, test, and work out any bugs, relating to the new component form factor.

Now in China... Supply problems on component X in the same situation, but a manufacturer on the other end of town offers component Y. Along with three others. Due to the massive manufacturing and supply chain infrastructure already in place, they will have no problem acquiring materials. Due to the close proximity, samples can be hand carried to your line. Because you don't have robots, people can easily adapt to the new part. Thanks to the prevailing workforce, additional semi-skilled labor is added easily, and at no increased cost per unit. Meanwhile, supplier of component X, has lined up new materials, increased their workforce, in an effort to retain your business relationship. So you now can use either one, and with your manufacturing process, this part is easily interchanged. You've never even left town once, this whole time.

That could have happened in America... but not now.