Foxconn, the infamous company that builds Apple’s iPhones and iPads amongst other leading electronic devices is starting to move away from making use of cheap labour and instead installing 1 million robots in their manufacturing process.
The robots will take over functions such as welding and assembling parts, tasks currently performed by the company’s human workforce in its huge factories. The company currently employs about 1 million workers, and this technological evolution of the manufacturing process is designed to increase efficiencies and reduce the labour force according to Foxconn CEO Terry Gou.
As the hi-tech manufacturing process becomes more auto-mated, with a lower proportion of revenues spent on maintaining a massive workforce – companies in the West which have outsourced their manufacturing may be starting to regret that decision as the Asian manufacturing powerhouses begin to demonstrate their power, and economies in the West are struggling to create jobs.