Foxconn is making great strides towards large-scal

Foxconn is making great strides towards large-scale factory automation

Foxconn CEO Terry Gou announced plans to equip the assembly line with 1million mechanical equipment, which is also an important step forward in the company's automated production process. Foxconn has been reluctant to talk about the progress of this plan, but according to the latest report, Foxconn's automation process plan is already in steady progress, and some factory workers also feel the effect of automation

however, Foxconn still insists that automated production will help enterprises increase production, and giving more work to robots will be more efficient than previous manual production. The introduction of automation can also help ease the tension of workers

Foxconn's approach seems to echo President Obama's speech this autumn. At that time, Obama was asked about the feasibility of bringing the manufacturing industry back to the United States. Obama replied that those jobs with low technology content should not return to the United States. Instead, in the future, the return of the manufacturing industry to the United States should focus on the development of advanced manufacturing technology

at present, globally, enterprises using mechanical equipment for production can significantly reduce production costs. It is unknown whether this strategy will have opportunities to stimulate the development of the U.S. manufacturing industry in the future. Previously, apple brought the manufacturing of MAC products back to the United States. One of the cores is automatic production. 100million nchal and other start-up funds can realize automatic machine manufacturing through ring opening polymerization

but labor costs are actually only part of the problem. The current control software of enterprises like apple can display the experimental force, peak value of experimental force, time interval, experimental force time curve and other experimental parameters in real time, which depends on the complex production chain, which is mainly located in Asia. Apple's production areas are gathered together, which also facilitates the immediate change of production process during product design. It is for this reason that the mass production of Apple products in China can achieve the fastest transformation with Apple's requirements, and the flexibility is very excellent

Foxconn, a waste recycling business of its own, has announced plans to expand its production operations to North America. In the future, more products branded with Madeinusa (made in the United States) will appear in the global market. At the same time, Foxconn's expansion of its production line to the United States is also a considerable challenge for the whole production. In order to overcome this obstacle, Foxconn needs to grasp the future of mechanical automation drive as soon as possible. Production in the United States requires more high-value engineering talents than low-cost human resources in China

solve the suspense of labor conflicts with mechanical arms

Hon Hai Precision has 1.5 million workers in the mainland. A series of scandals, such as child labor, employee suicide, and mass fighting in a mainland factory in September this year, have troubled the company for nearly three years. At the same time, the company's Foxconn factories in inland China are also facing labor shortages

realizing the automatic production of iPhone, TV, game console and other electronic products may enable Foxconn to fundamentally change the current dilemma. However, some executives of Hon Hai Precision pointed out that some factory assembled robotic arms can only complete simple and repetitive tasks such as moving a component. Many complex processes, such as grinding the metal shell of iPhone, still need to be completed manually

an unnamed executive of Hon Hai Precision said that the goal of equipping 1million mechanical arms set by Chairman Gou Taiming is like the carrot hanging in front of the donkey, and the company has been striving to develop this technology

the so-called robot arm is called industrial robot in the reports of mainland media. In 2011, Gou announced that he hoped to assemble 300000 industrial robots by the end of 2012 and 1million by 2014. However, at the shareholders' meeting in June this year, Gou postponed the time limit for achieving this goal, saying that he hoped to see the first batch of fully automated factories in 5 to 10 years, and eliminate simple and repetitive processes through automation in a few years

it is easier to know than to do. The first is the problem of capital. Some analysts said that the capital expenditure required to build automatic chemical plants would be very high. Sanfordbernstein analyst albertomoel predicts that the relevant annual expenditure will need at least $2.1 billion, or even more than $10billion, depending on the cost of robots and the degree of automation. He said that Foxconn's annual capital expenditure has always been less than $3billion, except for the company's massive expansion in mainland China in 2011

Gou doesn't seem to have enough. Hon Hai Precision's profit margin has been declining since the second quarter of 2010 due to the rise in wages of mainland workers. However, analysts said that in the third quarter of this year, the company's profit margin rebounded to 3.4% from 2.2% a year ago, because the company raised assembly charges

in addition to gou's statement, Foxconn's automation plan has always been confidential. But several workers at Foxconn's Shenzhen assembly line said the factory was implementing a certain degree of automation

Foxconn executives said that the company was independently developing more machinery and automation systems. Hon Hai Precision spokesman huguohui also said that he was buying the best industrial robots in the industry

Hu Guohui also mentioned that due to the short production cycle of most consumer electronic products, the introduction of industrial robots in the production process has little significance for improving efficiency. As soon as the automatic process of a product stabilizes, it has reached the end of the production cycle of the product, and then new products will appear. At present, robots are still more expensive than people in most fields. It is unrealistic to form an obvious substitution relationship in the past three years, but it is indeed a trend in a long cycle of ten years. Alternative confidence comes from two aspects: first, the price of robots and the cost of manpower fluctuate. Five years ago, the price of a welding robot was 500000 yuan, but now it has fallen to 150000 yuan. At the same time, the wage level in the manufacturing industry is increasing at a rate of 10% and 20% every year. Second, robots are not tired, nor do they have mood swings like people, and the quality of products they produce is more consistent. Practical data show that after the introduction of robots in the polishing process of the electronic industry, the product excellence rate has increased from 87% to 93%

the total number of workers in Hon Hai China's factory is as high as 1.5 million. In recent years, it has suffered many accidents that have attracted much attention, from being accused of employing child labor, to a series of employee jumping events, and then to a big riot in a factory in September. In the past decade, Foxconn has also built new factories in Chinese Mainland, and from time to time it will face difficulties in recruiting workers

for Foxconn, automating the production of iPhone, TV, game console and other electronic devices is of great significance, because it can not only improve the production efficiency of the company, but also keep away from the problems of employee suicide and factory conflict, which have become synonymous with Foxconn since 2009. However, according to some executives of Hon Hai, the manipulator installed in some factories can only perform repetitive and simple tasks, such as moving a part. Many complex processes, such as polishing the metal shell of iPhone, still need manual operation

an anonymous Hon Hai executive said that the chairman's goal of installing 1million manipulator is like the carrot hanging in front of the donkey. The company has been chasing this technology

in 2011, Hon Hai Chairman Terry Gou said that he hoped that the number of robotic arms installed would reach 300000 by the end of this year and 1million by 2014. However, at Hon Hai's shareholders' meeting in June, he postponed the time to achieve the goal, saying that he hoped to launch the first batch of fully automatic factories in the next five to 10 years, and eliminate the monotonous and monotonous tasks through automation technology in the next few years

cost crisis forces factory manufacturing automation

the capital expenditure required for the construction of automatic chemical plants will be very huge. Alberto, an analyst at sanfordbernstein, a market research institution Albertomoel said Foxconn would spend between $2.1 billion and more than $10billion on this, depending on the cost and automation of robots. In contrast, the company's annual capital expenditure is usually less than $3billion, except in 2011, when it expanded in mainland China, he said. Foxconn did not disclose its capital expenditure budget

Hon Hai's profit margin has been declining since the second quarter of 2010 due to the continuous increase in workers' wages. However, in the third quarter, due to the increase in assembly costs, its profit margin rebounded to 3.4% from 2.2% in the same period last year

Louis woo, Hon Hai spokesman, will always affect the experimental results, pointing out that given that the production cycle of most consumer electronic devices is very short, the introduction of robots in the production process will also face the problem of low efficiency. He said that by the time you are familiar with the production process or the whole process tends to be stable, the product production cycle has ended and another product needs to be produced

Hu Guohui would not disclose Foxconn's current robot usage and the timetable for implementing full-scale automatic production. In addition to gou's statement, Foxconn has been silent about its automation plan. But according to some workers at Foxconn's Shenzhen factory, the factory is implementing some automation technology. An employee surnamed Zhang, who has worked in Foxconn Shenzhen Longhua factory for two years, said that after the introduction of robotic arms in the factory earlier this year, a colleague of his was transferred in one of the production lines

he said that in the past, there were about 20 to 30 people in this production line, but after adding robots, the number was reduced to 5 people. They were only responsible for turning on and off the machine buttons, and in the past, they were responsible for inserting parts into the motherboard

Foxconn declined to comment on the transfer of employees

Foxconn's promotion of production automation is not welcomed by the Chinese government, because Foxconn has created a large number of jobs quite steadily, providing employment opportunities for people all over the country

Foxconn executives said that the company is independently developing more machines