aluminum is hardly a healthy metal to humans either. aluminum is considered a neurotoxin and aluminum poisoning can result from aluminum getting into the water supply (similar to lead) if not properly recycled and disposed of.
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Foxconn Workers Reportedly Strike over iPhone 5 Quality Control Demands
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aluminum is hardly a healthy metal to humans either. aluminum is considered a neurotoxin and aluminum poisoning can result from aluminum getting into the water supply (similar to lead) if not properly recycled and disposed of.
Agree with that. In my company the Americans work longer hours and have less leave etc, though that does not necessary result in more productivity. Personally I think they should reduce the hours and increase the leave, workers with a balance between work and personal life are far more productive.
where is your data? where is your analysis? what are your assumptions?
according to your statement, vehicles built in the US should also be double the price of their counterparts built in mexico. i don't see that...do you?
at least provide something with numbers on how you arrived at that number? otherwise we'll all just think you were lobbied with the rest of 'em
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I'm not saying that I need these features either, but at least they would be *possible* if Apple used a plastic case like everybody else.
Though that's only an issue for people that kiss/lick thier iPhones
he was talking about plastics from phones post-use in landfills causing health problems for local communities.
i mentioned that aluminum also causes health problems since it's a neurotoxin. if allowed to seep into the water supply it would negatively impact people's health just like plastics would
Actually there is nothing in common between micro assembly of electronics and auto assembly lines.
There are no robots that can assemble am iPhone. It requires labor and lots of it.
There is no place in the US capable of even providing 170,000 semi skilled labor at less than $35 an hour union wages, and yes that would drive the cost of your phone through the roof.
On that note, if Columbus used Apple Maps, he would have never found the Americas.
I think you've misunderstood the crux of the issue they are having there. It's not the assembly line workers complaining about hours or wages per se, rather this latest dust up is about the undo pressure being put on them by QC people who are standing over at them yelling at them to increase their output of a phone that appears to have a design flaw that allows it to be easily nicked during the assembly process...all while at the same time pressuring them to not allow nicked and scratched phones to continue on down the line. They've simply had enough of these QC guys and have taken to beating the crap out of them.
Blame Apple for pressuring Foxconn to increase output of a phone with a design fault in order to meet orders.
No why should they? I am referring to the people who don't look after their property and then try to blame it on a manufacturing defect not the ones that come pre scratched. Think outside the box a little.
you think robots assemble vehicles? have you ever actually walked along a vehicle assembly line? robotics are used for welds and for taking large metal components (door, trunk lid, etc) and aligning it so the human can then take it and attach it onto the car
the entire interior of a vehicle is assembled by humans...everything from installing the seats, the dash, snapping on the plastic panels, steering wheel...everything.
there aren't 170,000 unemployed people in the USA that could be trained to assemble iPhones? you think that the chinese are instinctively good at building phones, as if they evolved for that purpose? someone had to train them.
you think every state is unionized? every hear of right to work states?
So what if labor costs more money in this country, the costs of manufacturing stay within this country which is actually good for the economy. Paying a worker $15/hr to make an iPhone so that he is then able to purchase an iPhone has thus expanded your customer base. Paying someone in China $1.50/hr results in no additional sales for your company. Apple could take a hit on profit margin, if it could increase sales which it would by making phones in this country and paying its workers a wage that allowed them to buy Apple products.
People called Henry Ford an idiot for this kind of business practice, and look how that turned out. The rest is history...but let us not look back on this era as a missed opportunity
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I don't think you understand manufacturing at all. There are plenty of delicated product produced everyday. The issue is that the manufacturing process and output has to match with the product. Foxconn is in charge of deciding how to manufacturing the product. So they need to design a manufacturing process that product the Iphone along the many stations along the way (e..g putting the phone in a cradle line with soft cloth instead of putting the phone on the conveyor belt bumping against each other. Teaching workers how to handle the phone without pushing the panel against hard surface). In a well run manufacturing line, every movement of the end product is planned with quality in mind. Foxconn management team clearly are not prepare and understand how to produce this phone. My guess is that it is part of the problem of the big expansion and hiring everyone that they can. Apple fail in the QA of the end product. Looks like they just hand final QA responsibility to Foxconn and now they are paying dearly for the PR and production delay nightmare. If they did the final inspection (or at least monitor the final inspection), Apple would have know two to three months earlier that they have a major production issue that they can either put resource to fix it or delay some of the launching countries. Any of the alternative would have been better than where they are now..
Please show any evidence for "guard towers".
Surely there will be security personnel. Would you want your daughter to work and to stay at dormitories at a company with 80,000 employees, half of them young and possibly bored males, if there was no security personnel who could be called for help when needed?
Based on what I'm reading Foxconn definitely has a problem in the manufacturing process. I'm sure they have figured out were the problem is occurring and will take the necessary steps in correcting it. I'm also sure that its easy to tell which phones were damaged during manufacturing and which ones were drop out of a car window.
When I was supervising at a manufacturing company defects in the product certainly upset the workers even though when they were screwing it up they knew it but continued anyway. The issue then became that we had to fix the screwed up product while still making our daily quota. Makes for a real bad day. Had the employee said something at the time of manufacturing it would have saved us all a lot of extra work. For some reason employee don't see it that way. They think they are pulling a fast one and just want to hit the quota numbers and go home. Some people just don't have pride in their work. It shouldn't matter if your in China making $2.00 or making $8.00 people just don't take pride in what they are doing. It doesn't take any longer to do it wrong then it does to do it right..
Every process has a breaking point--a point at which it is impossible to push beyond without changing something in the process.
It sounds as if Foxconn promised more than it could deliver. Apple contracted with them, the quality has been an issue, Apple rightfully complains. At that point, Foxconn cannot simply demand "more" and "better" from the workers who are already working at maximum capacity. Something has to give--either the quality or the production volume. I don't doubt that the workers are being asked to maintain quality standards that are incompatible with the volume they have to produce. Bringing in more "conscientious" workers isn't the answer--if it were a matter of worker sloppiness, those few sloppy workers could easily be replaced. I don't believe the entire production force is sloppy--the fact that they revolted en masse is an indication this is not just a matter of sloppy or lazy workers.
Going forward, I don't doubt that Apple is the one that will ultimately have to change its production--either by finding other manufacturers who won't tarnish its image by mistreating the workers, or by building its own production facilities.
But for right now, the situation is what it is. Apple has customers lined up around the globe waiting for well-manufactured products. I don't blame the workers for flipping out--management at Foxconn is going to have to take responsibility for meeting its production goals, and they are not going to be able to do that without the workers. Force is not going to work.
Since Foxconn is supposedly such a "flexible" manufacturer, maybe the answer to the current crisis is to put together more assembly lines, hire more workers, train them properly and give them the tools to meet the quality standards Apple is demanding. Workers should not be pressured with impossible demands. And there IS such a thing as "impossible demands."
It sounds as if Foxconn promised more than it could deliver. Apple contracted with them, the quality has been an issue, Apple rightfully complains. At that point, Foxconn cannot simply demand "more" and "better" from the workers who are already working at maximum capacity. Something has to give--either the quality or the production volume. I don't doubt that the workers are being asked to maintain quality standards that are incompatible with the volume they have to produce. Bringing in more "conscientious" workers isn't the answer--if it were a matter of worker sloppiness, those few sloppy workers could easily be replaced. I don't believe the entire production force is sloppy--the fact that they revolted en masse is an indication this is not just a matter of sloppy or lazy workers.
Going forward, I don't doubt that Apple is the one that will ultimately have to change its production--either by finding other manufacturers who won't tarnish its image by mistreating the workers, or by building its own production facilities.
But for right now, the situation is what it is. Apple has customers lined up around the globe waiting for well-manufactured products. I don't blame the workers for flipping out--management at Foxconn is going to have to take responsibility for meeting its production goals, and they are not going to be able to do that without the workers. Force is not going to work.
Since Foxconn is supposedly such a "flexible" manufacturer, maybe the answer to the current crisis is to put together more assembly lines, hire more workers, train them properly and give them the tools to meet the quality standards Apple is demanding. Workers should not be pressured with impossible demands. And there IS such a thing as "impossible demands."
I understand where you are coming from but there are two problems. Apple market there products as flawless virtually and the high price point.
PJ.
Not true.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/2012/05/24/11-countries-with-the-longest-working-hours_n_1543145.html
Americans do work hard. Much harder than most countries but theyre still not in the top 10.
I live in Korea now and let me just say, the people here literally are machines. They have no lives. Their job is their life
Your absolutely correct. I was just taking the piss out of some users who would kiss thier iPhones cause they are in love with them
The Romans learned thier lesson with lead pipes , as you say If it hits the water supply can have very bad health impacts.
^ that.
this isn't so much an apple issue as a Foxconn issue trying to minimize costs on a firm fixed contract from apple. Foxconn is trying to boost their own profits by reducing capital equipment improvements despite the fact that they are needed to address the increased QA requirements from Apple. Foxconn should make the upgrades and if the situation is serious enough, Apple could purchase the equipment for Foxconn up front, lease it out to them, then sell it off when it's not needed.
But what if Foxconn has designed a proper process and the workers are handling the phones properly and as intended, yet the phones still come off the line nicked and dented. Foxconn likely would have indentified the defects but packaged them anyways due to pressure from Apple to meet initial orders. From the outside looking in, it looks like Apple has gone back to Foxconn telling them to fix the issues, yet maintain volumes. Is this a design flaw by Apple, or a process flaw by Foxconn. I don't don't know but maybe a little of both. I agree with you that Apple should have know about this a long time ago...and maybe they did...and there's nothing that can be done other than wait for the iPhone 5S.
^ This. There is nothing wrong with guard towers. It would be wrong if the tower is occupied by a guard with a sniper rifle but I highly doubt that it's the case here.
It's in the news that is was only a small group of workers. Foxconn denies that the production came to a halt.