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Foxconn Reportedly Increasing Quality Control with X-ray Imaging
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TSA is not a company. It is a government agency, whose importance is measured by the money they are spending, and the illusion of security they produce. You don't need a well-working x-ray machine for the illusion of security. And replacing a badly maintained machine after a year instead of using a well-maintained machine for five years produces more spending which increases the perceived importance of the agency, and creates more illusion of security.
True, modern plants have used X-ray inspection for decades. And assembly would be done by robots instead of by hundreds of hands.
So it is news that Foxconn will finally bring its plant up to present day standards in one area. (With robot assembly planned as well.)
Or... perhaps it should've been news that they didn't have X-ray inspection machines before now. The news should've been:
"Previously crude inspection techniques allowed questionable circuit boards to be sold in consumer devices. In return for increased profits for the seller, customers were forced to be testers and spend their own time and money returning bad items for replacement."
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I think the reason machines will be added is to up the production rate. Foxconn can do two things (and they probably do both):
- Employ more workers and expand the factory floor
- Make every worker more efficient by giving them the equipment they need to improve their output rate.
Thus creating more iPhones, iPods, iPads to be able to supply the ever-growing demand.
You forgot the part where it says Foxconn is going to use robots to "address the rising cost of labor". Doesn't sound like they are going to do much expanding of the workforce.
So they give their workers a raise, then turn around and install robots because of high labor costs.
I wonder if any robots will attempt suicide.
Again, you're confusing what I said with the implication machine not working at all. And again, that is wrong. You can end up with a machine that works but is still damaged the to point of being hazardous. Even though things are getting better I still do not believe safety is a priority due to the fact that it would unfortunately put them at a competitive disadvantage. At this point, employee well being is just as much theater as the example you described in many places. And before you lump me into a group, no I don't think this is Apple's fault to the point of writing or even signing one of those self-righteous petitions. But I'm not going to happily believe that everything is just great either.
Robots do not reduce headcount! Every robot needs a competent highly educated and trained staff to create, manage, and maintain it. The advantage of robots is that they operate with considerably less variation in what they produce compared to a human, resulting in less rework and scrap, which may or may not save money in the long run. Robots create more jobs for people with higher skills than they eliminate people with lower skills.
Foxconn employes have a choice of poisons to pick, toxics, repeated strain injuries, slave working hours and now, introducing, cancer. Who said apple isn't about choice? And all that just for younger and older brats to play around with their itoys...
To be honest - I cannot imagine that they didn't do x-ray and ICT so far. I don't believe it. If that would be true then yes this would be the real news.
Wishful thinking.
If it was really worth it to install a robot, then the robot almost always reduces headcount.
In addition to that, the person who the robot replaced will not be the one servicing the robot.
Example:
At an auto plant, you have people installing parts. Either you have robots assisting (basically being a powered arm to assist you in holding up that large metal panel) a person, or you have the robot entirely doing the install itself.
1) If it's assisting, then the person can do installs faster and with less effort. Unless you're expanding the line for higher volume, you've just reduced the number of people you need for a given production volume. Meaning, somebody else got let go.
2) If it's doing the install, then that's obviously a lost job since somebody used to do that job.
Example:
US Postal Service used to sort mail by hand. In the 1980s, people would see a piece of mail come in front of them, and they they'd have to key in the zip code. This is how they used to sort.
A neural net-based recognition system was developed to make this job automated. All those jobs were eliminated except for a tiny percentage (in order to handle the mail where the label was just too damn illegible.)
Most of the workers got let go. The remaining were put onto other jobs that were growing in demand.
You probably need to point it out because it wasn't humorous.
Yeah people are generally pretty uptight.
If you can't laugh at yourself then you need to relax.
So what you are saying is that they will do maintenance on these machines to keep them working, but tell the maintenance people that they mustn't look for any faults that would endanger the safety of employees? I wonder how ideologically fixated on imagined evils you have to be to have that kind of mental attitude.