Apple supplier says automation has freed up its employees for higher value-added roles, such as in R&D
Read between the lines: manufacturing jobs go away, R&D jobs go up. The problem? The people who have manufacturing jobs probably aren’t going to be the same ones that have R&D jobs, because of a different skills gap.
Apple Inc. AAPL, -0.17% supplier Foxconn Technology Co. 2354, +0.22% has replaced 60,000 human workers with robots in a single factory, according to a report in the South China Morning Post, initially published over the weekend.
This is part of a massive reduction in headcount across the entire Kunshan region in China’s Jiangsu province, in which many Taiwanese manufacturers base their Chinese operations.
In a statement to MarketWatch, Foxconn Technology Group confirmed that it has been automating its manufacturing facilities throughout China, including Kunshan, for “many years,” which it says has freed up its employees to focus on higher value-added elements of the manufacturing process, such as research and development, process control and quality control.
”Across all of our facilities today, we are applying robotics engineering and other innovative manufacturing technologies to replace repetitive tasks previously done by employees,” Foxconn said. “As our manufacturing processes and the products we produce become more technologically advanced, automation is playing an increasingly important role in our operations and we have plans to automate more of our manufacturing operations over the coming years.”
Roughly 600 companies in the Kunshan region are reportedly looking to reduce headcount with robots, as part of an effort to accelerate growth and reduce costs, according to the South China Morning Post, which cited data from the Kunshan government. Last year, 35 Taiwanese companies, including Foxconn, spent a total of 4 billion yuan ($610 million) on artificial intelligence as part of this initiative, according to the report.
Many of us are saying what many of you not actively in the tech world understand….
Why do you guys think there is a huge rift between folks who lose their job in manufacturing and can’t find comparable work, versus others that have no problem finding a comparable of better position in R&D in tech and cutting edge develop, where one gets routinely poached from competitors?
