Apple’s New iPhone, Made in China—By Robots
July 14th, 2014Via: Fiscal Times:
The worst kept secret of Apple and its Taiwanese manufacturer Foxconn isn’t their poor labor conditions. It isn’t even the fact that they use robots to help bring together all the pieces that make up an iPhone. It’s that their robots are now performing more and more human-like functions.
In the past, it’s always been people that put the finishing touches on the popular devices. Well, that’s all about to change.
Foxconn parent company Hon Hai is set to deploy an army of 10,000 assembly-line robots to help meet the demands of producing the highly anticipated iPhone 6. Hon Hai CEO Terry Gou revealed in a recent shareholder meeting that Apple would be the very first customer of Foxconn’s latest robots.
“Robots are going to enhance and speed up the manufacturing process,” said Tim Bajarin, CEO of market research firm Creative Strategies. “The really big issue here is that the demand for the iPhone continues to grow. It’s grown every quarter since it came out.”
From a business standpoint, it makes sense. “When you are dealing with creating millions of smart phones per month, efficiency is critical,” said Bajarin in an interview. “Robotics gives you that level of efficiency, which in the end, is very important for the bottom line.”
Throughout its various factories in China, Foxconn employs more than 1.2 million workers. They have reportedly hired an additional 100,000 workers in China — yes, human ones, to work alongside the robots.
