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posted by takyon on Monday August 03 2015, @08:00AM   Printer-friendly
from the coutsourcing dept.

In Dongguan City, located in the central Guangdong province of China, a technology company has set up a factory run almost exclusively by robots, and the results are fascinating.

The Changying Precision Technology Company factory in Dongguan has automated production lines that use robotic arms to produce parts for cell phones. The factory also has automated machining equipment, autonomous transport trucks, and other automated equipment in the warehouse.

There are still people working at the factory, though. Three workers check and monitor each production line and there are other employees who monitor a computer control system. Previously, there were 650 employees at the factory. With the new robots, there's now only 60. Luo Weiqiang, general manager of the company, told the People's Daily that the number of employees could drop to 20 in the future.

The robots have produced almost three times as many pieces as were produced before. According to the People's Daily, production per person has increased from 8,000 pieces to 21,000 pieces. That's a 162.5% increase.
...
The growth of robotics in the area's factories comes amidst a particularly harsh climate around factory worker conditions, highlighted by strikes in the area. One can only wonder whether automation will add fuel to the fire or quell some of the unrest.

Is eliminating the work force the best way to solve labor unrest?


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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 03 2015, @08:34AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 03 2015, @08:34AM (#217289)

    Soylent Green is the Final Solution to the Worker Problem. Hitler was a century ahead of his time.

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  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 03 2015, @08:44AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 03 2015, @08:44AM (#217292)

    Hitler was a century ahead of his time.

    Terrible wasteful, mein Herr, a barbarian in this respect.
    Think how much organic nitrogen locked in those jews was lost back into the atmosphere and how much greenhouse gas was generated by burning the coal to do it.

    • (Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 03 2015, @09:02AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 03 2015, @09:02AM (#217296)

      No coal was used to burn anyone. Bodies were piled on top of each other and set on fire. They burned all by themselves and nothing remained (within half an hour). In open pits. There are living witnesses who saw this happen with their own eyes.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 03 2015, @09:06AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 03 2015, @09:06AM (#217299)

        Bodies are terribly hard to light on fire. All that moisture and flame resistant skin you see. Easier to feed 'em to the pigs. Have to get the teeth out for the piggie's digestion first though. Nasty business, that.

        • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 03 2015, @09:32AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 03 2015, @09:32AM (#217309)

          Bodies are terribly hard to light on fire.

          You can't question the official story. Just because the official story relies on breaking the laws of physics is no reason to question them.

          • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Monday August 03 2015, @07:41PM

            by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Monday August 03 2015, @07:41PM (#217531) Journal

            Well, if you dry them out first they would burn nicely, though not as well as if they contained more fat.

            OTOH, piles of moist oily rags can undergo spontaneous combustion, so perhaps a large enough pile of corpses would also. You should, however, expect this to take awhile.

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        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 03 2015, @10:04PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 03 2015, @10:04PM (#217618)

          Easier to feed 'em to the pigs

          brick top, is that you?

          "never trust any man that owns a pig farm"

      • (Score: 2) by Nuke on Monday August 03 2015, @09:48AM

        by Nuke (3162) on Monday August 03 2015, @09:48AM (#217311)
        No coal was used to burn anyone. Bodies were piled on top of each other and set on fire.

        Open pits were used in the early days, but later it was much better engineered than that. Coal was not used, not later at least.

        The heat from burning one batch was used to pre-heat the next batch. That melted the fat out of it which was run down to burn in the furnace. These furnaces still exist at Auchwitz in a museum role, I understand. Can't help thinking that all this technology, learning from the Holocaust, will be put to use again one day when expanding populations start fighting each other for dwindling space and resources. There are genocidal views already among Muslim extremists. Hitler ( and the Kaiser before him, [telegraph.co.uk] who actually declared a Jihad) had significant empathy with Muslims.

        Sorry to sail close to Godwin, but it is seriously relevent here, and it wasn't me who brought him into it.
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 03 2015, @01:20PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 03 2015, @01:20PM (#217383)

          Entire stories can be made up, complete with details. Then one must wonder why the obviously efficient techniques developed were never used again. There have been a number of disease outbreaks in animals: Foot and mouth disease etc and these already perfected efficient techniques were never used, where one body provides the fuel to burn the next body.

          http://wildpro.twycrosszoo.org/S/00Man/VeterinaryTechniques/FMDVetIndTech/FMDCarcass_Burn_Technique.htm [twycrosszoo.org]

          It mentions (among other things), two days are necessary to complete burning of the carcasses.

          And for incineration of the animal carcass: One piece of heavy timber, 203 KG coal per carcass, ....

          • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday August 03 2015, @01:58PM

            by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Monday August 03 2015, @01:58PM (#217397) Journal

            Hitler used dedicated structures for the purpose. He shipped the victims to the structures. Farmers and ranchers don't have these dedicated structures, specially engineered for the disposal of carcasses. The comparison is rather silly, IMHO. A wood bonfire, laid on open ground, is never going to get as hot as a coke fire in a well engineered blast furnace. Never. Yes, it takes two days to burn a cow carcass. And, you're still left with the heaviest bones to dispose of.

            • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 03 2015, @02:32PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 03 2015, @02:32PM (#217404)

              Even a replica of the original structures has not been made or used. I'm sure that during the last 80 years someone would have developed a furnace on similar principles if it really was real, but no. It only ever existed on paper, where it will always remain.

              • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 03 2015, @03:35PM

                by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 03 2015, @03:35PM (#217425)

                Maybe the need for replicating it didn't arise?

              • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 03 2015, @08:00PM

                by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 03 2015, @08:00PM (#217546)

                I'm sure that during the last 80 years someone would have developed a furnace on similar principles if it really was real, but no.
                Probably because the general public and law enforcement frown at the idea of heating your home with people.

      • (Score: 3, Informative) by c0lo on Monday August 03 2015, @09:50AM

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Monday August 03 2015, @09:50AM (#217313) Journal

        How ecological of them!! </sarcasm>

        Unfortunately, that's not true. Really now: more than 66 furnances. [wikipedia.org]
        As ghastly as is sounds. here are some details [nizkor.org].

        In comparison, the incineration of the Nazi victims of homicidal gassing at Auschwitz was done with no such restrictions. This can be seen in the Operating Instructions for Coke-Fired Topf Double-Muffle Incineration Furnace:

        "As soon as the remains of the corpses have fallen from the chamotte grid to the ash collection channel below, they should be pulled forward towards the ash removal door, using the scraper. Here they can be left a further 20 minutes to be fully consumed, then the ashes should be placed in a container and set aside to cool.... In the meantime, further corpses can be introduced one after the other into the chambers." (Technique p.136.)

        What this means is in reality the incineration of the victims didn't take just "20 minutes" (or 30 minutes, etc.) but an additional 20 minutes to be fully consumed in the ash channels of the furnaces.

        ...

        "Müller claimed that there was a direct relation between increased use and increased economy. If the cold furnace required 175 kilograms (kg) of coke to start up a new incineration, it needed only 100 kg if it had been used the day before; a second and third incineration on the same day would not require any extra fuel thanks to the compressed air; and those that followed would call for only small amounts of extra energy..." (Anatomy, pp.185-186.)

        How small is "amounts of extra energy?" Two kg of coke's worth?
        It is also interesting to note that according to the Operating Instructions for Coke-Fired Topf Double-Muffle Incineration Furnace that:

        "After each incineration, the temperature rises in the furnace. For this reason, care be taken that the internal temperature does not rise above 1100C (white heat).... This increase in temperature can be avoided by introducing additional fresh air." (Technique, p.136.)

        This, of course, supports the assertion that the combustion of the corpses acted as fuel for the incineratoin process, thus reducing the amount of coke needed to heat the furnace.

        True, open air cremation was used sometimes [blogspot.com], when crematoria weren't operational

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