African Manufacturing Jobs Could be Threatened by US Based Robots, Report Says (bbc.com)

Within less than two decades it will be cheaper to operate robots in US factories than hire workers in Africa, a new report warns. From the report: Falling automation costs are predicted to cause job losses as manufacturers return to richer economies. Some analysts say poorer countries could be less impacted by this trend, however the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) suggests otherwise. But its report adds African nations have time to prepare for the change. "African countries must not shy away from manufacturing, but instead prepare by increasing access to internet, investing in technical skills and promoting technological innovation," said Karishma Banga a senior research officer at ODI. "If done well, automation can present important opportunities for African countries by improving labour productivity in manufacturing," she said. It has been suggested that poorer countries will not as be affected by automation because they have less money to invest in it.

Comments

This is actually good news

[Anonymous Coward]

Africa needs to get its shit straight and cook up an economy to support themselves. They do not need to be the world's latest source of cheapest available labour to be exploited for trinkets. No, "the internet" and other gimmicks are not even key here: The key is to get organised. This needs infrastructure, of which information tech is but one part. Africa doesn't need the rest of the world exploiting it, supporting its upper crust in the name of "development aid", patronising it, or anything else. Africa needs to get its own shit straight.

Re:This is actually good news

[mikael]

We've tried for decades. As the charities say, they want someone else to pay their lunch for them.

  To solve the food crisis, we send them aid in the form of corn and grain seeds so they plant crops and have a self-sustaining agriculture. They either eat the grain or sell it for fast cash, then wait for the next airplane to deliver more aid.

We can build self-maintaining water treatment works. These systems work on long-wave radio and satellite communications. Everything is designed to be animal proof. Satellite and radio antennae are high up, grounded to protect against lightning and lined with a box mesh to stop primates getting anywhere near. Any faults are broadcast upstream and a repair team is sent out. Systems have fault-tolerant redundancy built in. There isn't any way these systems could fail. Except that the operator in the control room would change the satellite channel to watch local soap operas and take the system off-line to do so.

If we try and build roads, anyone with any equipment will suddenly have breakdowns and needs money to buy spare parts. If you provide your spare parts from warehouse, there will be break in and suddenly those spare parts turn up on the market.

The only thing that can be done and that's what the Chinese do, is pay them to rent their land.

Complete nonsense

[sjbe]

Within less than two decades it will be cheaper to operate robots in US factories than hire workers in Africa

Speaking as someone who runs a manufacturing plant and who has bought robots, this is complete bullshit. Anyone who actually believes this has no idea of the costs involved or the capabilities of robots or manufacturing automation. There is PLENTY of headroom in labor intensive industries for people to be employed in manufacturing including in Africa. Robots simply are not that cheap or capable and are in no danger of becoming so any time soon for most tasks.

Robots are economically viable for high volume and/or dangerous work. They are not nearly as flexible or capable as many people imagine them to be and they certainly aren't cheap. There are some industries and products where they make a lot of sense and many more (especially low volume production) where they are not economically viable. Most automation actually doesn't come in robot form either for that matter.

The problem Africa has in getting into manufacturing comes in several parts. 1) A lot of corruption, 2) extremely bad infrastructure, 3) An inexperienced talent pool for workers. All these are solvable problems but aren't easy ones either. Automation is far down the list of obstacles to manufacturing in Africa.

Not so simple

[sjbe]

Not if you take into account shipping to the US. If you want to sell in Africa, you'll produce in Africa, but if you want to sell in the US, you'll produce in the US.

Sorry but it's not remotely that simple. US labor is among the most expensive in the world so labor intensive goods tend to be produced elsewhere, even for items consumed by the US. But even that doesn't capture it all. Supply chain location matters too. East Asia dominates electronics manufacturing in large part because that is where the supply chain is located. It's FAR cheaper to make the products there and then ship them to the US in most cases and that isn't really a function of labor rates for the most part. Japanese labor isn't much cheaper than US labor but Japan exports a huge amount of stuff to the US. Conversely the US has a HUGE export sector too even though the US is a net consumer.

you frequently need to ship the raw materials from somewhere, but producing at either the material source or the selling destination is cheaper than involving a third intermediary location for production.

The calculation isn't that simple. It depends on relative labor rates, tariffs, exchange rates, local supply chains, infrastructure, lead times, communication costs, administrative costs, and a host of other considerations. All other things being equal you would be right but things are rarely equal like that.