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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: 2) by Phoenix666 on Monday August 03 2015, @11:05AM

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Monday August 03 2015, @11:05AM (#217339) Journal

    I lived in China in Beijing and Harbin, in Manchuria. I have seen the care they take with everything. Slapdash is about the nicest way you can put it. If there were an opposite end of the quality spectrum from the Swiss/Dutch/Germans, who have an obsessive need for everything to be genau ("exact"), China would be it, or at least tie for last place. There is individual genius there, of course there is, but it is heavily weighed down by a cultural heritage of, "Oh, the tower fell down because we used tissue paper for the main supports? Well, throw another 10,000 peasants at it, that'll do the trick!" And that is compounded by the Chinese Communist Party's propaganda-fueled insistence that that fine quality be delivered at half the recommended minimum safe time.

    Eh, who knows? Maybe it doesn't make a difference. A Zerg swarm will often overcome the Protoss.

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