Brilio.net/en - Taiwanese giant technology company Foxconn is the company in charge of the assembly for Apple (especially for the iPhones) and Samsung. In a recent press release, the company announced that it will replace 60.000 workers with robots.
The factory is located in Kunshan, China. The citys population is composed by two thirds of factory workers, and 46% of the citys surface areas are factories.
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Despite the fear of the locals to face massive unemployment after the announcement, there wont be any mass layoffs in theory. Among the 110.000 persons employed by the company, half of them will no longer work to put the components together on the assembly line, which will then be the robots job. The workers will be trained to do more qualified tasks.
In the official press release, Foxconns spokesperson explained: We are applying robotics engineering and other innovative manufacturing technologies to replace repetitive tasks previously done by employees, and through training, also enable our employees to focus on higher value-added elements in the manufacturing process, such as research and development, process control and quality control.
However, Foxconn was repeatedly the target of critics regarding the working conditions of its employees. Among the accusations: employment of minors, riots and wave of suicides. Apple forced the Taiwanese company to sign an agreement to guarantee the safety of its workers. We will see in the near future whether the company will keep their promise, and if the use of robots might actually be a sustainable solution.
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Other factories of the company will soon be equipped with robots, and many other technological firms are also considering the installation of robots to complete the most mechanical and repetitive tasks.
The company Momentum Machines in the USA creates robots able to replace human for all different kind of tasks: making burgers for example. The BurgerBot is indeed able to cook, prepare and pack a sandwich in a few seconds. NASA is also experimenting for several years with some robotic systems that would be able to explore outer space instead of astronauts.