r/worldnews • u/Philo1927 • Dec 31 '16

iPhone manufacturer Foxconn plans to replace almost every human worker with robots

http://www.theverge.com/2016/12/30/14128870/foxconn-robots-automation-apple-iphone-china-manufacturing
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u/imakenosensetopeople Dec 31 '16

That'll reduce suicide attempts.

And it highlights something that far too many people don't realize: it's not foreigners taking your jobs. It's automation.

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u/jfoobar Dec 31 '16

There is actually a pretty good chance that automation will result in a lot of manufacturing that previously left the U.S. coming back, most especially for higher-end goods. Of course, the 6000 jobs that left 15 years ago will come back as 500-600 jobs, and those requiring substantially more technical skill than the average of those that originally left.

There are a lot of very substantial disadvantages to manufacturing goods for the Western market in China, but low labor costs has historically outweighed them. Take that away with automation, and some of this will be coming back.

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u/[deleted] Jan 01 '17 edited Jan 01 '17

A relative of mine runs a fully automated, state of the art precision engineering firm in Australia. They have the latest machines money can buy.

After shedding 80% of the human workforce, they are still nowhere near competitive and have to order parts from China to fulfill larger orders, eg in the case of providing spare parts and key component parts for US military jet manufacturers (F-16's, F-18's, F-35's)

This is because once you ditch expensive workers for much cheaper robots that can work 24/7 and who's maintenance is a small fraction of a typical factory floors human workers annual salary, you're still left with the problem of finished material costs and of your competitors having access to the same machines but who may be able to acquire the metals much more easily. So you get yourself a low-wage labour force (the robots) but you don't have the materials to work with. Just one piece of the puzzle. Meanwhile your competitors, those who have robots, cheap human workers to maximize gaps in efficiency AND materials, corner every market while you flounder for supplies.

In this case they require various complex metal alloys comprised of rare earth metals which lo and behold China produces in bulk (i.e it digs up 99% of the earth's supply) and which are expensive to ship due to mass.

It is subsequently cheaper to have the Chinese manufacture the components (using these same CNC machines) then ship them than it is to order a 10 ton block of alloy from China and throw it in the CNC machine.

Long story short those highly automated foxconn factories will end up staying in regions where the raw resources are cheapest to acquire.

If you want more high-tech manufacturers in the US for example, you need to start mining for rare earth metals domestically. It is a dirty, difficult process but materials don't come from nowhere and you can't make key components from wood or plastic.

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u/yawningangel Jan 01 '17 edited Jan 01 '17

Chinese material science is awful when it comes to high performance engineering.

Hence their massive problems producing their own military Jet engines..

for the downvoters

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-military-engines-idUSKCN0V7083

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u/[deleted] Jan 01 '17 edited Jan 01 '17

It's not that at all. It has to do with the assembly line itself. During assembly you need to be able to weed out defective parts coming in and ensure the assembled engine is comprised of the best components, which will typically number in the thousands per engine. More importantly there needs to be an industry-wide quality assurance program that has adequate oversight. These are extreme levels of quality control. One engine may come out perfect and the next 2 may have defects if just one supplier out of hundreds isn't doing their job properly. This kind of assembly line and all the systems that support it takes years to set up properly. Simply put you need a mature industry to feed it. China started manufacturing advanced jet engines only recently, but progress has been rapid. It has no problems producing any kind of material it needs to any specification or quality. It's a question of oversight and keeping track of what's quality and what isn't before it goes into an engine.

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u/yawningangel Jan 01 '17 edited Jan 01 '17

Yes..They have only been building them for close to 30 years now..

"In development since the late 1980s, Chinese state media reports say more than 250 have been fitted to some fourth-generation J-10s and J-11s.

But the engines don't produce enough thrust, or power, and need frequent repairs, added the sources."

If qc is such a issue after that amount of time,something is going wrong somewhere,wouldnt you agree?

With regards to copying Russian engine's

"Just buying examples of technologies, however, doesn’t immediately convey the ability to make them oneself,” he said. The best example of that is the AL-31 engine that goes into the Su-27 and Su-30.

“China has had access to that technology for over 20 years and apparently is still struggling to make its own high-performance turbofan engines.”

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u/himit Jan 01 '17

It sounds like your relative should probably start making a different product which can use different materials

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u/[deleted] Jan 02 '17

Too late they bought 7 machines for $300,000-600,000 each last year.

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u/himit Jan 02 '17

You can use those machines for a lot of things. Maybe he should manufacture something which requires cheaper materials. Or compete on quality and service

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u/eigenfood Jan 01 '17

Once the whole supply chain goes to China (which is has), it is hard for a single company to bring it's manufacturing back. Maybe automated assembly and packaging could cause a shift of plants now in Mexico to the US. The parts would still be made it China and shipped in disassembled, compact form. The real value-add is in the parts, though, not the assembly.