An old friend who owns two huge factories in China told me recently that he has managed to cut his labor force by nearly 50%. He has done it by introducing robotics into his system. He is delighted with the cost savings, but on checking his online published price lists I can see that he is pocketing the big savings and is not passing them on to his customers.
In recent years his workers have become more demanding, and government policies have been requiring employers to provide more benefits and better working conditions. Because of this, my friend is relieved to be able to reduce his labor requirements.
I asked how common is the use of robots in Chinese manufacturing, and his answer was very interesting. He said that there are thousands of factories that once had very big numbers of workers but now that they have changed to robotic production those numbers are very small.
He couldn't give me numbers, but he named some of the companies that he knew I was familiar with, and frankly, I was shocked. Some of them produce items that would seem to require skilled hands to produce, but robots have been successfully programmed to take over the role of humans.
Nearly 30 years ago I saw automated machines operating on production lines, and it is still commonplace today. Much of the tedious and physically demanding work was being done by machines 30 years ago, but the processes have been steadily improving. The few human workers are now only needed to program those machines, and in some case, to feed the supply line.
Not every process can be automated. On my many visits to factories in China I have also seen humans working like robots. Often the work they do is brain - numbingly repetitive, but sometimes it requires skill also. In one industry I know well, there have been many attempts to automate the process using robotics, and they have all been a total failure, mainly due to a huge reject rate. The robots can't seem to detect tiny faults in the work.
What I see happening now is that a lot Chinese companies are coasting along on the country's reputation as a low labor cost manufacturing center, and racking up bigger profits by getting rid of human labor as much as possible.
Walter
In recent years his workers have become more demanding, and government policies have been requiring employers to provide more benefits and better working conditions. Because of this, my friend is relieved to be able to reduce his labor requirements.
I asked how common is the use of robots in Chinese manufacturing, and his answer was very interesting. He said that there are thousands of factories that once had very big numbers of workers but now that they have changed to robotic production those numbers are very small.
He couldn't give me numbers, but he named some of the companies that he knew I was familiar with, and frankly, I was shocked. Some of them produce items that would seem to require skilled hands to produce, but robots have been successfully programmed to take over the role of humans.
Nearly 30 years ago I saw automated machines operating on production lines, and it is still commonplace today. Much of the tedious and physically demanding work was being done by machines 30 years ago, but the processes have been steadily improving. The few human workers are now only needed to program those machines, and in some case, to feed the supply line.
Not every process can be automated. On my many visits to factories in China I have also seen humans working like robots. Often the work they do is brain - numbingly repetitive, but sometimes it requires skill also. In one industry I know well, there have been many attempts to automate the process using robotics, and they have all been a total failure, mainly due to a huge reject rate. The robots can't seem to detect tiny faults in the work.
What I see happening now is that a lot Chinese companies are coasting along on the country's reputation as a low labor cost manufacturing center, and racking up bigger profits by getting rid of human labor as much as possible.
Walter
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