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cafebabe writes:

From The Daily Mail:

iPhone maker Foxconn has revealed Apple's new iPhone 6 could be the first to be made using its 'robot army'. The firm has pledged to have a million robot workers by the end of the year - and CEO Terry Gou has revealed the robots, dubbed 'Foxbots', are in the final stages of testing. It is believed Foxconn will install 10,000 robots as a test.

Each $25,000 Foxbot can complete an average of 30,000 devices per year it has been claimed.

Foxconn, which currently employs more than 1.2 million workers at its various factories across China. However, the firm's robot initiative has been delayed since it was first announced in 2011. At the time, Gou said the company had about 10,000 units already in operation, a number that was supposed to rise to 300,000 in 2012, then one million by 2014. However, the firm is also ramping up human workers for the iPhone 6, with 100,00 being hired according to some reports.

Dozens of pictures have leaked online claiming to show Apple's iPhone 6. They all show a thin, curved device with distinctive white 'bars' across the back. However, a Japanese news agency has claimed that in fact, the finished product will look very different - and that it could even have a curved screen.

kaszz writes:

Many startups want to design something that mimics the fit and finish of an Apple product, but it's a good way to go out of business.

What happened when Apple wanted to CNC machine a million MacBook bodies a year? They bought 10k CNC machines to do it. How about when they wanted to laser drill holes in MacBook Pros for the sleep light but only one company made a machine that could drill those 20 µm holes in aluminum? It bought the company that made the machines and took all the inventory. And that time when they needed batteries to fit into a tiny machined housing but no manufacturer was willing to make batteries so thin? Apple made their own battery cells. From scratch.

Other things that Apple often does that can cause problems for a startup include white plastic (which is the most difficult color to mold), CNC machining at scale (too expensive), Laser drilled holes (far more difficult than it may seem), molded plastic packaging (recycled cardboard is your friend), and 4-color, double-walled, matte boxes + HD foam inserts (It's not unusual for them to cost upwards of 12 US$/unit at scale. And then they get thrown away.).

If you see a feature on an Apple device you want to copy, try to find it on another company's product. If you do, it's probably okay to design into your product. Otherwise, lower your expectations. I assure you it'll be better for your startup.

Foxconn, the Apple supplier that doubled factory pay after a spate of worker suicides, buys 800 programmable Robodrills from Fanuc every month - for about 62 000 US$ each - to make the stainless steel band that wraps around the iPhone. The Fanuc Robodrill is the world's common CNC machine measured by installation numbers and by total value thanks to Apple.

Seems form and style are essential for the marketplace (yuck).

Edit: It's come to our attention that this was originally submitted to Slashdot by Hugh Pickens and some of the text appears to have been copied. We apologize for the mis-attribution. Further, this practice is frowned upon, you must write an original submission when submitting article summaries.

n1 writes:

El Reg reports:

Apple manufacturer Foxconn reckons it will create one million jobs in India by 2020 – nearly the entire number of its current Chinese workforce – according to reports.

Hon Hai otherwise known in the West as Foxconn, last month revealed it was setting its sights on India due to increasing wage costs in China.

The firm has not released any more details or elaborated on what the plans will mean for its Chinese manufacturing base. However, it does appear to be slowly fleshing out a relocation move.

takyon writes:

Foxconn, the Taiwanese manufacturer of Apple and Xiaomi smartphones as well as Samsung tablets, plans to spend $5 billion on new factories and development in the Indian state of Maharashtra.

Maharashtra will provide 1,500 acres of land for Foxconn on which facilities will be constructed over the next 5 years. Foxconn says that the development will provide 50,000 jobs, short of the "million job opportunities" it promised in July:

India was chosen for an R&D role because of the skills of local workers, but the move to India is motivated by other factors too. One is undoubtedly the "Make in India" policy India's government is using to lure manufacturers to the nation and to improve local manufacturing practices. Make in India is both an economic development policy and a way for India to point out that there are easy ways to access its growing domestic market.

Wage growth in China may be another factor in Foxconn's thinking, as may China's increasing preference for joint ventures on its soil. Beijing's military posturing in the South China Sea also has diplomatic types pondering the wisdom of having all one's manufacturing eggs in a Middle Kingdom basket. Indian facilities may be a few more sea-days from the USA, but aren't horribly out of the way.

Previously: Foxconn to Hire 1 Million People in India by 2020

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Electronics maker Sharp has accepted a $6.25 billion (700 billion Japanese yen) takeover bid from Foxconn, although the deal is now on hold. The $6.25 billion figure includes liabilities:

Ailing electronics maker Sharp has accepted a takeover bid from Foxconn, the company that assembles iPhones. After the deal was announced, Sharp's stock fell more than 14 percent. And Foxconn now says it will postpone finalizing the sale due to late-arriving information.

Thursday night local time, Foxconn issued a statement in Taiwan saying that it will now delay signing the deal, because of a document that Sharp shared with it on Wednesday, according to Focus Taiwan News, which adds that the sale was previously planned to be finalized by the end of this month.

[...] The Japan Times says the proposed deal would mean the loss of one of the country's crown jewels, calling it "the largest-ever acquisition of a Japanese electronics maker by a foreign company."

[cont..]

takyon writes:

Foxconn will take over the electronics maker Sharp for about 20% less than it was willing to pay previously.

Chinese iPhone assembler Foxconn is to swallow Japanese monitor biz Sharp for ¥389bn (£2.5bn) – around £625m less than it had previously been willing to cough up. Under the terms of the deal, Foxconn's daddy Hon Hai will gain a controlling stake of 66 per cent in Sharp.

The takeover beat a proposal by the Japanese government to bail out the ailing company with a state-backed fund. According to the Japan Times, Sharp is expected to report a loss of ¥200bn (£1.2bn) for its fiscal year 2015. Last month the long-awaited merger was put on hold after the Japanese outfit passed new info to Foxconn, reported to show a 300 billion yen ($2.7bn) liability in its accounts.

Also at BBC, NYT, and Reuters.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Foxconn, the Chinese manufacturer of Apple's iPhones and other electronic devices, aims to replace human workers with "FoxBots" and achieve nearly full automation of entire factories:

The slow and steady march of manufacturing automation has been in place at Foxconn for years. The company said last year that it had set a benchmark of 30 percent automation at its Chinese factories by 2020. The company can now produce around 10,000 Foxbots a year, Jia-peng says, all of which can be used to replace human labor. In March, Foxconn said it had automated away 60,000 jobs at one of its factories.

[...] Complicating the matter is the Chinese government, which has incentivized human employment in the country. In areas like Chengdu, Shenzhen, and Zhengzhou, local governments have doled out billions of dollars in bonuses, energy contracts, and public infrastructure to Foxconn to allow the company to expand. As of last year, Foxconn employed as many as 1.2 million people, making it one of the largest employers in the world. More than 1 million of those workers reside in China, often at elaborate, city-like campuses that house and feed employees.

In an in-depth report published yesterday, The New York Times detailed these government incentivizes for Foxconn's Zhengzhou factory, its largest and most capable plant that produces 500,000 iPhones a day and is known locally as "iPhone City." According to Foxconn's Jia-peng, the Zhengzhou factory has some production lines already at the second automation phase and on track to become fully automated in a few years' time. So it may not be long before one of China's largest employers will be forced to grapple with its automation ambitions and the benefits it receives to transform rural parts of the country into industrial powerhouses.

To undermine American manufacturing, ditch the meatbags.

Original Submission

butthurt writes:

The New York Times (may be pay-walled) reports that Terry Gou, the CEO of Foxconn has confirmed rumours aired in December to the effect that the company is considering building an additional factory in the United States. Yahoo Finance UK says that the factory, if built, "could create about 30,000-50,000 jobs." The South China Morning Post reports that the facility, expected to cost more than $7 billion, would make dot-matrix displays (such as used in television sets and mobile phones) under the Sharp name. Mr. Gou remarked that:

Speaking in November, Gou had called on the incoming U.S. leaders to refrain from protectionist policies, The China Post had reported.

Additional coverage:

• The New York Times
• Korea Times
• Macworld
• USA Today
• Reuters

Related:
Foxconn Plans to Replace Nearly All Human Workers With Robots in Some Factories
Foxconn Acquires Sharp at a Lower Price Than Previously Agreed
Sharp Accepts $6.25 Billion Takeover Bid from Foxconn, but Foxconn is Wary of Debt
Softbank to Invest $50 Billion in the US

Original Submission

-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

The Progressive reports:

Wisconsin is now poised to reward Foxconn with a whopping $3 billion "incentive" package--the fourth largest "mega-deal" in U.S. history. (That figure works out to an incredible $231,000 per job, and does not include the local subsidies that are invariably a part of such deals.) The bulk of this subsidy would be paid out in cash.[1]

[...] Wisconsin is jumping into the self-defeating interstate competition for jobs, in which U.S. states spend a collective $110 billion[2] on tax breaks and other sweeteners reserved mostly for the largest and most profitable companies like Foxconn, which raked in $2.26 billion in profits last year.

[1] Paywall after x visits per month.
[2] Link in TFA is just a search: http://america.aljazeera.com/search.html?q=%24110+billion.

Original Submission

Whoever writes:

The lawmakers in Wisconsin voted in favor of an incentives package worth up to $3B for Foxconn. The total value of the package depends on the number of jobs that Foxconn creates in the state, so, effectively, the state is paying about $500,000 for each new job.

Most of the incentive is in the form of cash payments from the state to Foxconn, not just tax waivers. The cost to the residents of the state is about $1,200 per household.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Foxconn is attempting to acquire the consumer electronics and networking manufacturer Belkin International, which owns the Linksys and Wemo brands. However, the deal could be rejected by the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment:

The Taiwanese company known best for manufacturing iPhones, Foxconn, will soon be the company behind some of the best known routers and other computer accessories. A subsidiary of Foxconn, Foxconn Interconnect Technology, announced today that it would acquire Belkin, which also owns the brands Linksys and Wemo.

[...] Foxconn will pay $866 million in cash to acquire Belkin. The Financial Times notes that the purchase should be subject to approval from the US Committee on Foreign Investment, meaning it isn't a done deal just yet. Given that there have been other high profile foreign acquisitions shut down under the Trump administration, one shouldn't consider this purchase safe — especially since it involves networking equipment. That said, Foxconn has pledged to build a $10 billion factory in Wisconsin, which could help it stay on the administration's good side.

Also at Bloomberg and 9to5Mac.

Original Submission

Runaway1956 writes:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2015/06/23/the-worlds-biggest-employers-infographic/

Given the size of their populations, many people generally assume that the world's largest employers are Chinese or Indian. However, according to research published by the World Economic Forum, the US Department of Defense boasts a workforce of 3.2 million people, making it the largest global employer. The Chinese military, the People's Liberation Army, is in second position with a force of 2.3 million.

Walmart and McDonald's come third and fourth with 2.1 and 1.9 million employees respectively (the number for McDonald's includes franchises). England's National Health Service (NHS) makes a surprising appearance in fifth place with a 1.7 million strong workforce - more than Indian Railways or the Indian armed forces.

The claim seems to be verified by wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_employers Their page also lists the top 11 non-governmental employers

*SPOILER* (click to show) *SPOILER* (click to hide)

	Employees
Employer	2015	2010	Headquarters
United States Department of Defense	3.2 million		United States
People's Liberation Army	2.3 million		China
Walmart	2.1 million		United States
McDonald's	1.9 million	1.7 million	United States
National Health Service	1.7 million	1.4 million	United Kingdom
China National Petroleum Corporation	1.5 million	1.7 million	China
State Grid Corporation of China	1.5 million	1.6 million	China
Indian Railways	1.4 million	1.3 million	India
Indian Armed Forces	1.3 million		India
Hon Hai Precision Industry (Foxconn)	1.2 million	0.8 million	Taiwan

Private and semipublic companies with the most employees in the world
Rank	Employer	Country	Employees
1	Walmart	United States	2,300,000
2	China National Petroleum	China	1,512,048
3	Post Group China	China	941,211
4	State Grid	China	926,067
5	Hon Hai Precision Industry	Taiwan	726,772
6	Sinopec Group	China	713,288
7	Tata Group	India	695,000
8	Volkswagen	Germany	626,715
9	United States Postal Service	United States	574,349
10	Compass Group	GBR	527,180
11	Agricultural Bank of China	China	501,368

No story seems to be complete without the BBC's angle on things https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17429786

The National Health Service (NHS) in England is at the centre of a big political row about its reform. It's often said to be the third biggest employer in the world, after the Chinese army and Indian Railways. But is that really true?

It's an incredible claim, given how much smaller the UK is than China or India.

And indeed, it is not true.

Sizing up the world's biggest employers and compiling a list of the top 10, the NHS is revealed to be the fifth largest, with 1.7 million workers across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Phys.org:

Taiwan-based electronics manufacturer Foxconn is struggling to find enough skilled workers for its planned facility in Wisconsin and may bring in personnel from China, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

The report said Foxconn, which makes devices and components for Apple and other tech firms, is facing a tight labor market for the manufacturing plant, which is getting some $3 billion in incentives from the midwestern state.

The company has pledged to hire 13,000 workers at the southern Wisconsin site, but some reports say the total may be lower as Foxconn scales back its initial plans.

They should offer American workers more festive suicide nets.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

Foxconn may drop plans to build flat screens in Wisconsin

Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Foxconn may drop plans to build flat screen panels at a Wisconsin plant for which it was promised $4 billion in state and local tax dollars. But the company says it is going ahead with developing the Wisconsin property and still expects to hire up to 13,000 workers.

The plant and its expensive incentive package has been controversial from the time it was announced in 2017. It was negotiated during the tenure of former Republican Governor Scott Walker, who lost his re-election bid last year. The incentive package was one of the issues in the campaign.

[...] A top executive at Foxconn told Reuters that the company determined a US plant "can't compete" with lower-cost flat panel plants elsewhere in the world.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

An investigation by China Labor Watch has found Foxconn's Apple 11 factory is "routinely" and "repeatedly" breaking Chinese labour laws which limit employment of temporary staff.

The exhaustive investigation saw several people working in the factory to uncover abuses, with one individual placed there for more than four years.

The report found a big increase in Foxconn's use of dispatch workers – short-term staff hired during peak season – since 2016. Some of these are university and secondary school students forced to work overtime or risk losing qualifications – as detailed in a previous report.

Dispatch workers are hired via third-party companies. These staffers are promised bonuses for signing up to make iPhones, but this money is often not paid, the report stated.

Chinese law restricts dispatch workers to 10 per cent of total staff and their overtime is meant to be limited to 36 hours a month. Both of these limits are being ignored by Foxconn, according to the report, with dispatch staff making up as much as 50 per cent of total staff at peak times. Dispatch workers are paid more than permanent staff but have far fewer rights and are dismissed when peak demand is over. Hiring temporary staff means Foxconn does not have to increase wages across the board in order to attract more staff.

Li Qiang, executive director of China Labor Watch, said: "Apple and Foxconn know that the issue with dispatch workers is in violation of labor laws, but because it is profitable to hire dispatch workers, they haven't addressed the issue. They have allowed these violations to continue over the years."

Original Submission

upstart writes in with a submission, via IRC, for chromas.

Exclusive: documents show Foxconn refuses to renegotiate Wisconsin deal

Whatever Foxconn is building in Wisconsin, it's not the $10 billion, 22 million-square-foot Generation 10.5 LCD factory that President Trump once promised would be the "eighth wonder of the world." At various points over the last two years, the Taiwanese tech manufacturer has said it would build a smaller LCD factory; that it wouldn't build a factory at all; that it would build an LCD factory; that the company could make any number of things, from screens for cars to server racks to robot coffee kiosks; and so on.

Throughout these changes, one question has loomed: given that Foxconn is building something completely different than that Gen 10.5 LCD facility specified in its original contract with Wisconsin, is it still going to get the record-breaking $4.5 billion in taxpayer subsidies?

Documents obtained by The Verge show that Wisconsin officials have repeatedly — and with growing urgency — warned Foxconn that its current project has veered far from what was described in the original deal and that the contract must be amended if the company is to receive subsidies. Foxconn, however, has declined to amend the contract, and it indicated that it nevertheless intends to apply for tax credits.

fliptop writes:

'This trend looks irreversible,' supplier exec says of tech industry's production shift:

Dell plans to cease using chips produced in China in its products by 2024 amid concerns over tensions between the U.S. and China, reports Nikkei citing sources familiar with the PC maker's plans.

It is unclear whether Dell can indeed replace all chips made by companies like SMIC and Hua Hong by next year from all of its designs and how this affects its costs.

[...] There are several reasons why Dell wants to stop using chips produced in China in its products. First up, the company will diversify its supply chain. Secondly, U.S. lawmakers late in 2021 considered banning devices that feature chips made in China from using by government organizations due to national security concerns. The government did not proceed with the idea, but certainly Dell wants to ensure that its gear does not get banned by U.S. legislators even if they prohibit usage of hardware featuring China-made chips by government agencies, which are among its major clients.

[...] All large U.S.-based PC makers transferred their production to China in the recent couple of decades, which helped to create a fully-fledged supply chain in the country. But rising labor costs in China and growing tensions between the People's Republic and the U.S. have urged PC makers to diversify their supply chains.

Apple reportedly plans to produce some of its MacBooks in Vietnam starting 2023, whereas numerous server makers are transferring their production to Taiwan. Even Foxconn, the world's largest contract maker of electronics, has been establishing presence in India and Vietnam for a while, which is not easy as Vietnam still lacks sufficient engineering talent.

Related:

• China's Government, State-Backed Firms to Scrap Foreign PCs Within Two Years
• Foxconn to Shift Some Apple Production to Vietnam to Minimize China Risk
• China Trade War Could Push iPhone Contractor Foxconn to Build in Mexico

Original Submission