From Singularity Hub:
Foxconn’s Pivot to America: Reverse Outsourcing With Robots
A little over a year ago, Foxconn, the notorious Taiwanese manufacturer of Apple’s iPhone, said they would replace a million Chinese workers with robots. Now, the firm says they plan to transfer capital-intensive and high-tech manufacturing to the US.
The two announcements are closely related. Just as cheap labor and competitive firms like Foxconn lured US electronics companies to outsource manufacturing to Asia—new generations of advanced robots may be set to bring it back. (Note: Though there are fewer manufacturing jobs due to automation, the US still “makes” plenty of stuff.)
Signs point the way to Foxconn and Huawei, a telecom firm, in China.
China, where Foxconn operates its iPhone plant, has been vilified in recent years for “stealing” US manufacturing jobs, as have the multinationals assembling products there. Most folks (often politicians) cite the fact Chinese factories can pay lower wages than their American counterparts.See also:
But lower wages are only part of the story. A 2012 New York Times article related an encounter between the late Steve Jobs and President Obama. Obama wanted to know what it would take to bring iPhone assembly to the US. Apple’s CEO was blunt, “Those jobs aren’t coming back.”
He went on to explain that when Apple redesigned the screen in the original iPhone just weeks before launch, 8,000 Chinese workers who lived on the factory grounds were immediately awoken, given tea and a biscuit, and set to work refitting screens. A mere 96 hours later, they were pumping out 10,000 iPhones a day.
“The speed and flexibility is breathtaking,” Jobs said. “There’s no American plant that can match that.”
Behind those words was an unspoken, controversial fact. No American plant could compete, in part, because the working conditions Jobs described would be considered unacceptable. China on the other hand has fewer such regulations, and therefore, it’s faster, cheaper, and more convenient to assemble electronics there....MORE
Foxconn Sees New Source Of Cheap Labor: The United States (AAPL)
Here's the Robot that Foxconn Will Use to Build Their Million-strong "Robot Kingdom" (ABB; AAPL)
Massive Foxconn Investment in Indonesia to Begin Producing By December (AAPL)
Automation: "Apple’s $10.5B on Robots to Lasers Shores Up Supply Chain" (AAPL)
Phone Manufacturer Foxconn to Build an 'Intelligent Robotics Kingdom' in Taiwan (AAPL)
Arizona officials court Taiwan iPad, Kindle maker
Foxconn mulls building TVs, display panels in Arizona
Foxconn could follow Apple to Arizona
Foxconn Begins Installing First 10,000 Robots (AAPL)
"The next generation of robotic assembly lines are emerging" (GOOG; AAPL; TSLA; 2317 Taipei)
Foxconn Working With Google on Robotics"
And many more.
And from "What May Happen When the Foxconn Robots Become Self-Aware"
In 2010 when 18 Foxconn employees attempted suicide and 14 succeeded there was a worldwide outcry.
This outcry stemmed from a number of factors including an ignorance of statistics and a profound ignorance of suicide in human populations.
At the time Foxconn had 930,000 employees (now 1.2mil.) resulting in a suicide rate of 0.001505376% or 1.505 per 100,000.* According to the all-knowing one, Wikipedia, the rate for China as a whole was 22.23 per 100,000.
The Foxconn rate was lower than that of 99 countries including every country in Europe, the U.S. (12.0) and the rest of the G20.
As a general rule, if you aren't feeling too chipper stay out of Eastern Europe and the Western U.S.
*Half of the workforce is in the gigantic Shenzhen complex of facilities. 14/450,000 only gets you to 3.1 per 100,000 or about the rate of Malta and less than a third of the worldwide rate of 10.07 per 100K.
