Foxconn's Founder Opens Up About Making iPhones

eldavojohn writes "Bloomberg Businessweek has an article of interest resulting from a three-hour interview with Foxconn founder Terry Gou (single page), whose company manufactures 137,000 iPhones a day. The article profiles Gou's rise to Foxconn but also offers some interesting tidbits you might not know. On why he is not opening factories in the United States, Gou frankly states, 'If I can automate in the US and ship to China, cost-wise it can still be competitive. But I worry America has too many lawyers. I don't want to spend time having people sue me every day.' If you're interested in how a modern day Henry Ford thinks, you can read the rest about the man steering the ship of the world's largest producer of electronics components and China's largest exporter. This unprecedented transparency was part of an agreement Gou made with his customers during his delayed response to an increasing number of Foxconn suicides."

Comments

Re:Exploitation for the win!

[Antisyzygy]

Machines are an investment. They require maintenance, power, lubricants, ect. If your machine gets damaged, you have a direct assault to your investment. A machine needs regular attention. A human being on an assembly line is not an investment. They require a couple weeks of training which is essentially handled by another human peon. If they get damaged you can fire them without additional cost. You can always find another one and pay them the same thing you paid the one you replaced, or less while they are being trained. You don't care if the human eats enough or has proper medical care because you can always get a new one. A human requires less attention than a machine. Basically, this Foxconn dude is doing something brilliant. It goes :

1. Get human meat

2. Train human meat

3. If human meat fails, discard and go to step 1

4. Profit