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i have a theory-re latest mbpro quality issues

M

mediasorcerer

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 30, 2010
157
1
IM sure some of you have heard of, or read various stories around the net about the very poor working conditions in apples chinese factories lately,how some workers have comitted suicide,some got poisoned by chemicals,and other things like that,yes?

Whose to say the workers are not subtly sabotaging the macs in un detectable or unobvious ways in protest to the working conditions,afterall,
theyve been building these unibodies for a few years now,

there seems to be an inordinate amount of faulty machines coming off the lines,wonder if theres a connection?
thoughts?
 
I think the threat of being beaten with big sticks will stop them sabotaging the Macs.

More seriously, I doubt this is the case. Some Chinese labourers may be unhappy (there are conflicting reports about conditions), but destroying the reputation of their own factory would not be productive.
 
yes,unless perhaps its sending a signal to improve conditions?,after all,it may be very hard to pin down an actual culprit,its only a theory of course,but it would add up,
do you think there has been an inordinate amount of faulty laptops in the latest release?
i may be wrong of course,i freely admit that,

just seems unusual considering the design has not changed that much in the last few years,but,
people can exhibit strange behaviour under duress!
thanx for reply,
 
Those stories are largely wrong and the conditions in the Apple factories are generally considered to be well above average for most Chinese factories and the suicide rate is below the national average.

There is no reason to make wild accusations like these. There have always been hardware issues whenever Apple makes a change in hardware other than just proc, mem or hdd.
 
it's an assembly line where if someone were to do something then it would get traced back to them because the same problem would pop up in multiple machines.

we call them sweatshops, but in china these are highly coveted jobs that pay more than average.
 
yes while these conditions are not ideal there are not many jobs to go around so i doubt workers would hurt themselves by sabotaging the products because if nothing else i would think it would cause them to relocate the factory which would devastate the local populous.
 
mape2k said:
Is that something you know by fact or just a random racist comment?
Click to expand...

Really? Racist? Have you seen China's human rights record? It's not great. No I don't specifically know about the exact conditions of the workers in that factory, but I do know that many Chinese people live and work poor conditions. Others are more fortunate.
 
mediasorcerer said:
...there seems to be an inordinate amount of faulty machines coming off the lines,wonder if theres a connection?
thoughts?
Click to expand...

I'm wondering what data you have to support that statement? If you do have any data, how did you determine that the fault rate was inordinate? :confused:
 
iStudentUK said:
Really? Racist? Have you seen China's human rights record? It's not great. No I don't specifically know about the exact conditions of the workers in that factory, but I do know that many Chinese people live and work poor conditions. Others are more fortunate.
Click to expand...

The way you stated it was like saying the weather is nice, which makes it look like a racist comment (to me). I know that the human rights (our standards) are not followed in China and that work conditions may be poor (otherwise China would not be growing at such a huge rate I guess). That doesn't give us the right to assume the workers of Apple are beaten by a stick if a mistake happens. I seriously hope that Apple takes care about their workers and tries to improve the working and living conditions in China or otherwise I will have to find another company to buy a laptop from...
 
Personally I feel sad because some people work for few bucks whole day in poor conditions because some people have the lucky chance of buying, using things which they could never buy for them.
So I think that it is highly inappropriate to indicate that they sabotage something in any way.

And second, most of the production is automated and machines do all the delicate work.In mass production you will always have some % of defects.
To reduce this number, you need to have much more quality control, and that raises the product costs and time.
So most of the company include the % of defects in the final product price, because of time, so they can produce faster and ship faster.
 
mape2k said:
The way you stated it was like saying the weather is nice, which makes it look like a racist comment (to me). I know that the human rights (our standards) are not followed in China and that work conditions may be poor (otherwise China would not be growing at such a huge rate I guess). That doesn't give us the right to assume the workers of Apple are beaten by a stick if a mistake happens. I seriously hope that Apple takes care about their workers and tries to improve the working and living conditions in China or otherwise I will have to find another company to buy a laptop from...
Click to expand...

Apple uses other companies such as foxconn to manufacture their laptops, they have no say whatsoever in how the employees are treated there, Foxconn does.

I don't see how the previous comment was racist, it was just a joke as I saw it. Racist would have been to say something along the lines of "well those commies really can't build a laptop worth it's weight in *****". THAT would be racist.

Disclaimer, the text in quotation is an example, and doesn't in any way reflect my views on the issue.
 
snaky69 said:
Apple uses other companies such as foxconn to manufacture their laptops, they have no say whatsoever in how the employees are treated there, Foxconn does.
Click to expand...

Its sad but true. I just googled some pages and from what I read there has been no or little improvement for the working conditions of employees involved in the production of Apple products. What makes it worse is the usage of third part companies like Foxconn (like you said). I guess all the PR from Apple about green products and ensuring the best conditions for workers is total BS, not different from other companies...
 
snaky69 said:
I don't see how the previous comment was racist, it was just a joke as I saw it. Racist would have been to say something along the lines of "well those commies really can't build a laptop worth it's weight in *****". THAT would be racist.
Click to expand...

Communism isn't a race.
 
I'm guessing that every part of the mac assembly process can be traced to a single worker. That knowledge alone should thwart any notions of sabotage.

Like some of those thermal paste jobs I've been seeing/hearing about. That guy needs to have a paycheck (or two) withheld just to cover the cost of all the extra "goop" he's been smearing on the boards. (He must have a background in icing cakes. :eek:)

mape2k said:
Its sad but true. I just googled some pages and from what I read there has been no or little improvement for the working conditions of employees involved in the production of Apple products.
Click to expand...
Then there's the other extreme... building things here in the U.S. where every worker demands $22/hour, free child care, 8 paid breaks and groundhog day off (with pay).
 
Al Coholic said:
I'm guessing that every part of the mac assembly process can be traced to a single worker. That knowledge alone should thwart any notions of sabotage.

Like some of those thermal paste jobs I've been seeing/hearing about. That guy needs to have a paycheck (or two) withheld just to cover the cost of all the extra "goop" he's been smearing on the boards. (He must have a background in icing cakes. :eek:)

Then there's the other extreme... building things here in the U.S. where every worker demands $22/hour, free child care, 8 paid breaks and groundhog day off (with pay).
Click to expand...

Sadly, unbridled capitalism has failed the human race time and again :(
 
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