Foxconn to replace part of workforce with 1 million robots

By on Aug 1, 2011 at 9:20 AM
Business August 1, 2011

Hon Hai-owned manufacturing giant Foxconn intends to release a portion of its workforce in favor of 1 million new robot workers according to a new report. Xinhua News Agency said on Friday that Hon Hai chairman and founder Terry Gou confirmed the news, seemingly in callous fashion at an employee dance party. The new robots will be used to perform “simple and routine work” such as part assembly and welding. Foxconn currently employs approximately 1.2 million people and also utilizes 10,000 robots. According to the chairman’s reported comments, the number of robot workers will increase to 300,000 next year and 1 million in three years. It is unclear how much of Foxconn’s current workforce will be let go following the introduction of these new robots. Foxconn’s treatment of its workforce has garnered a great amount of attention following a string of employee suicides.

Read

Tags:
, , , , , , , , , , ,
25 Comments

Related Articles

  • Anonymous

    I guess robots won’t beg for luxuries like food,sleep,decent wages and a safe work environment……..

    • http://www.facebook.com/applelover Tim Meesseman

      Well then why don’t you sell you vacuum and get a house cleaner? I mean, it wouldn’t “beg for luxuries like food,sleep,decent wages and a safe work environment……..”

      • Anonymous

        How do you know I don’t have a cleaning person Mr Meeseman?

    • Anonymous

      I just paid $ 22.87 for an iPad2-64GB and my girlfriend loves her Panasonic Lumix GF 1 Camera that we got for $ 38.76 there arriving tomorrow by UPS. I will never pay such expensive retail prices in stores again. Especially when I also sold a 40 inch LED TV to my boss for $ 675 which only cost me $ 62.81 to buy. Here is the website we use to get it all from, http://to.ly/aRzu

  • Anonymous

    Will the robots commit suicide?

    • Anonymous

      If they are running android software they will.  true story™©®

      • dee

        Hey scrotum, what’s with the “true story”?

      • Anonymous

        That he was conceived as the result of a romance between his father, who he found out later in life was really his uncle, and his mother who he much later in life found out was his other uncle after a sex change; therefore, he is sickly and psychopathically inbred.

        True Story™®©•π

        PAPINYC, CtO (Chief tAmpon Officer for Apple)

      • Anonymous

        By the way. I’m a douchebag.

      • Anonymous

        Scroaty-ca-ca (means ScroatySh¡t in Spanish – True Story™®©), the more important question is:
        when did you start your modeling career and working with FOXCONN? I guess it’s true what they say, ‘any inbred horse can be a model these days’.

      • Anonymous

        P.S.
        Now go log-in with one of your other user handles, “Mobile” or “PAPINYC (impersonator)”, respectively, and reply with your usual ‘Fairy Cock Troll’ or ‘chief douche bag’ responses.

        Sincerely,
        PAPINYC, CtO (Chief tAmpon Officer for Apple)

        True Story, For Real™®©•π

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/Umairmuhammadalikhan-Umairkhan/100000724275502 Umairmuhammadalikhan Umairkhan

        lol hahahahaha

  • http://www.facebook.com/applelover Tim Meesseman

    Have we learned nothing from the Cylons?

  • Anonymous

    This is why Google doesn’t use Foxconn to manufacture any of its products.  This is all on Apple and Apple’s fault only.  That’s why Goofans (aka Apple Haters) absolutely hate Apple.  

  • Anonymous

    More and more jobs are bring lost to automation. I’d like to hear the excuses again about how new jobs will be created as a result.

    • Ashley Keith

      the argument should go…..automation should bring about higher quality jobs (building, maintaining, designing, etc. of the robots), but all i see around me is a country getting more stupid :)

  • I_glaser

    If the workforce are mostly robots, why manufacture in China? Robots use the same amount of electricity everywhere.

    • sirpaul

      Still lots of human workers.

    • Anonymous

      China owns most of the rare earth minerals required for large scale electronic manufacturing, it makes the component commodities far cheaper if you single source from the supplier. Oh and power per KW I’m sure is far cheaper in China as it’s internally driven from it’s own deadly coal production and use.

  • Ashley Keith

    appropriate article picture of a robot with the sole job of assembling random trash into a neat stackable packages

    • Anonymous

      Foxconn manufactures for a lot of companies…

  • Applesucksfatties

    They treat their employees terrible, are dropping them to add robots.. and yet crApple throws them more business.  

  • Anonymous

    Androids building robots? What has the world come to?

  • Alexander530

    Phewww, finally, those who complain about how Foxconn treats their employees can now be relieved. This is great news. No more maltreatment and no more suicides. No more jobs as well, hahahaha. They asked for it. Now those workers can roam the streets freely with no jobs :)

  • Rudy

    There goes Apples profits.  

    America was going to add ‘more robots’ to their work force ‘to keep jobs here’ too, before finding it cheaper to outsource to China.

    Africa will be the next China – just wait for it…I was thinking more S. America 1-2 years ago, Brazil / Argentina but I think they will be too developed by the time China busts.  Brazil certainly has built a great manufacturing infrastructure.

blog comments powered by Disqus