Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Could Foxconn's Robots Make it Like Future Gears Will Be Made In The US?

Foxconn, according to a Chinese report, will begin to replace Chinese workers with one million robots to improve margin and efficiency.  Foxconn is a manufacturing company that make up a lot of smartphones, tablets, and laptops.  

Right now, Foxconn has 10k such robots deployed in its factories but that number will increase to 300K by next year and one million in three years.  These robots will be tasked to welding and assembling where possible.

As I understand it, how much many workers will these robots replace?  

Furthermore, I wonder if this means that an army of these robots eventually mean more future manufacturing of mobile gadgets, PC, and other techs done in the US, resulting in higher employment here in the States.  Or that Foxconn or another manufacturer could set up regional factories to more quickly distribute the final products.

Japanese firms like Honda and Toyota routinely put on display advances in robotics that seem to be far more advanced than what we are used to seeing here.  For a nation with a swindling population, Japan could fall back on robotic technology to maintain its social order and economic edge in the world.  

Perhaps this is something that our own companies and government laboratories could also look into as well.  

One thing I know about technology and science is that with time, we can almost make anything work.  We already have robotics in car factories.  They are involved in chip-making.  Imagine in a few years that someone like Apple could potentially design its products where a majority of its manufacturing and assembling be done by robots with minimal human intervention.  

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