Posted on 01/27/2015 10:49:09 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Foxconn, a supplier for Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), has announced that it’s cutting its workforce.
The exact number of employees that will be affected by the Foxconn layoffs hasn’t been announced. The company also hasn’t said when the layoffs will go into effect. The job cuts come as the company faces higher wages in China and less revenue growth, reports Reuters.
The Foxconn layoffs are also likely affected by the company’s desire to replace workers with robots. The use of robotic arms in some parts of the company’s work will allow the company to replace workers that were performing simple tasks, Reuters notes.
The Foxconn layoffs comes as Apple is expected to announce record iPhone sales, with the possibility that it sold more phones in China than the United States, reports MacRumors.
Foxconn has been talking about doing this for at least four years. Mostly because robots can produce repeated operations with great precision and you don’t have to deal with labor issues, either.
LOL. A company complaining about wages in China.
Cue the music video apple ad with hipsters waving flags as lyrics blare promising fun for the children.
this could be the next ‘leapfrog’ that bring production back to USA
we started mass production.
unions made production to expensive here
production went overseas
overseas costs are getting up there now...
robotic production can be made here (seriously , you don’t WANT to send robots there... they have a billion people that would be out of work)
Talking points
- apple employs virtual slaves in China making iPhones
- apple will layoff workers in China making iPhones
- therefore, apple’s layoff of workers is a good thing, because it reduces the number of slave laborers it keeps.
Robots can work here just as efficiently...............
They’ll definitely treat the robots better, and they’ll probably get better pay. lol
If they’re gonna use robots to assemble the components, I’d think Apple would be better served to ‘insource’ that process, and build their own factory here in the US that’s full of robots. They’d save money all around, by cutting out the middle man, no costs involved with international shipping, and they wouldn’t have the huge labor costs that companies usually have in the US because they’re using robots. They WILL need some tech workers to maintain and oversee the robots, but not very many.
The robots are coming! The drones! They’re watching our every move! The bosses will punish us and make us pay! LOL!
[This message was brought to you by extremely cheap hardware, open source software and very little wattage.]
Plus,robots don’t commit suicide!
“Mostly because robots can produce repeated operations with great precision....”
That made me think of the Michael Douglas movie “Disclosure” (1994). Douglas character was an executive in a computer hardware company, and had specified robots be used for a critical assembly at an oversees plant. His new boss, played by Demi Moore, secretly countermands those orders, and has the assembly done by hand — to “create jobs” and pander to the foreign government. The humans can’t do the work with the necessary precision, and trouble ensues.
There’s more — but, I just wanted to mention that your point was a plot device in a major Hollywood moving picture show.
“Foxconn Layoffs: Apple Supplier to Downsize Workforce [Desire to replace workers with robots]”
Whatever factory work can be automated will / should be automated. That will reduce costs and prices. Pretty basic. Young people take note.
I am reminded of a Twilight Zone where a boss relishes in others becoming obsolete and finds himself out of a job in the end. The show with the raised podium.
So job threats from automation is not limited to factory workers. all sorts of job functions will increasingly be turned over to machines and robots. Brave new world.
Anyone considered doing this to our congresscritters?
After all,a few hundred functional transistors will fully replace most of ‘em.
And Pelosi, Whorehouse Harry, Boxer, and Feinstein could be adequately modeled by a simple resistor.
Oh, Bonehead and McDorkell would require only a putrid day old pile of shi....er...Obamastuff.
Sure, but regarding wages, there’s no place to go after China. Do they want slaves?
Manufacturing jobs are never coming back to America. The first step was shifting the jobs overseas to take advantage of lower costs. The next step will be fully automating the manufacturing process with robotics.
By the way, we really need to come up with more modern terminology than "robot."
"Robot" sounds too much like bad 1950s science fiction.
They can also work 24 hours a day.
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