Foxconn, also known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, opened ..
Read more at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/70896533.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst
Sigh. I guess the working class in India could thank Trump.
Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and India are the places US manufacturers are switching to due to the trade war with China.
I posted here the other day about VN being the go-to place for many ex-China manufacturers.
Quote from: rcjordan on August 30, 2019, 08:26:51 PM
I posted here the other day about VN being the go-to place for many ex-China manufacturers.
That's where I read that! I couldn't remember.
Chasing low labor rates may be a fool's errand in the long run, as labor rates will presumably rise everywhere as the global economy develops. But Vietnam is still one of those places "where lots of people are still scrambling for entry-level work,"
https://www.ajot.com/premium/ajot-manufacturing-in-vietnam-capacity-shifts-tariff-avoidance-tariff-evasion
The move away from China is probably for the best. Too many US companies were totally dependent on China, plus it gives places like Vietnam and India a chance to develop their economies.
>move away from China is probably for the best.
I agree. But, in the end, the result is going to be more robotics to sate our addiction to cheap labor. You just can't count on humans -or countries, for that matter, over the long haul.
>>> Robots
"Mr. Ford lucidly sets out myriad examples of how focused applications of versatile machines (coupled with human helpers where necessary) could displace or de-skill many jobs.... His answer to a sharp decline in employment is a guaranteed basic income, a safety net that he suggests would both cushion the effect on the newly unemployable and encourage entrepreneurship among those creative enough to make a new way for themselves. This is a drastic prescription for the ills of modern industrialization--ills whose severity and very existence are hotly contested. Rise of the Robots provides a compelling case that they are real."―Wall Street Journal
I think for a while people have been saying that the future is for more manufacturing to return to the US, but to bring no jobs with it. Or rather, a steel mill will come back and employ 6 people instead of 6000.
Once you solve the labor "problem," it makes more sense to produce things closer to the raw materials and the US still does pretty well for raw materials. And that logic, by the way, also bodes well for China and parts of Africa and South America. Not so well for Western Europe AFAIK. But again, this has little to do with jobs.
So at some point, smartphone manufacturers might start offering ugly but functional phones built by robots (think FreePhone) and fashion statement phones built by people that cost more but look so cool and slick in your hand that you put it in an ugly OtterBox to protect it. Then eventually, we will figure out how to build better robots that can build fancier phones and displace the humans.
Even the pretty, $1000 ones will be robot-crafted.
Foxconn to invest $4 billion in new robotics and automation technologyhttps://roboticsandautomationnews.com/2018/02/24/foxconn-to-invest-4-billion-in-new-robotics-and-automation-technology/16182/
QuoteAccording to the report in DigiTimes, general manager of Foxconn, Dai Jia-peng, of the company's Automation Technology Development Committee, the three stage process will be as follows:
In the first phase, Foxconn aims to set up individual automated work stations for work that workers are unwilling to do or is dangerous, Dai said.
Entire production lines will be automated to decrease the number of robots used during the second phase, Dai noted.
In the third phase, entire factories will be automated with only a minimal number of workers assigned for production, logistics, testing and inspection processes, Dai indicated.
Some of Foxconn's factories have already been brought into the second phase, and there are 10 "fully automated" production lines at some of the factories.
>Even the pretty, $1000 ones will be robot-crafted.
iPhone maker Foxconn says coronavirus outbreak won't affect production
https://www.theverge.com/2020/1/28/21112288/coronavirus-foxconn-apple-iphone-outbreak-production-manufacturing-schedule