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.
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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?
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday August 03 2015, @05:36PM
1978 [wikipedia.org] was a long time ago
WPG [wpgholdings.com] is scaring the [bleep] out of Avnet and Arrow (probably triggering the purchase of NuHo).
And in case you missed it: Hon Hai's factories [wikipedia.org] "together assemble around 40 percent of all consumer electronics products sold", including just about every consumer high-tech product you'd get as answers on Family Feud. About 2/3rds of their employees are in China.
And that's only the big guy. thousands of competitors surround it.
They've got the supply chain figured out, for sure, even if sometimes bad parts happen (to US/Euro companies too). There aren't too many places left in the world where you can ramp production as quickly as China. A few bad accelerators don't prevent Toyota from being number 1 any more than a few bad caps derail Shenzen.