Slashdot Mirror
Foxconn's Robot Workforce Now 20,000 Strong
itwbennett writes "Slashdot readers will recall Foxconn's plans to staff its factories with an army of 1 million robot workers to offset rising labor costs. Well, now we have an update on those plans. Speaking at the company's shareholder meeting on Wednesday, Foxconn CEO Terry Gou said that there are 20,000 robotic machines currently at work in Foxconn factories. Ultimately, these robots will replace human assembly workers and 'our [human] workers will then become technicians and engineers,' Gou said."
In the car industry, a large proportion of the traditional handwork has been robotised in the last half century. This has led to much better build quality, more affordable cars with more luxury features and it has allowed high-wage countries to remain competitive with lower wage countries. The number of people that work in the car industry hasn't decreased significantly as a result; instead more people are now involved in development and production of features and accessories that would not have been feasible in an average price car without robotisation.
I strongly suspect that most manufacturing industries would benefit from more robotisation. Overall, it is just more efficient and it allows skilled workers to do other useful things.