According to a news item published by DigiTimes, the asian company Foxconn, headquartered in China, and one of Apple's largest and well-known partner manufacturers, is now considering automating all its development plants, thus eliminating labor as we know it today.
Due to the development in artificial intelligence, it is a matter of time before companies in the sector begin to replace their human-staffed production lines with automated machinery, thus avoiding personnel costs and saving production time, optimizing the entire process.
Since the launch of the iPhone 6, in October 2014, the company has already replaced more than half of the staff with automated robots that perform the same function.
In the words of Dai Jia Peng, Manager of the Committee for the Development of Automation Technology, the Asian company has a plan that unfolds in three different phases. In the first phase, the automated workstations would be installed, replacing the workstations of current employees. This phase has already begun, substituting jobs with the greatest danger for employees, significantly reducing workplace accidents.
The second phase at Foxconn already includes the complete automation of the lines of production. Currently there are about 10 fully automated lines, although it is expected that in these years they will begin to implement this second phase on more lines.
The third phase, the final phase, projects entire factories using an automated workforce. In this way, the human personnel would be assigned to the maintenance of the machinery, the logistics of the factory and the control of the production processes.
We will be attentive to these changes to see how it evolves one of the companies with the highest production share to the North American company today and since the production of the first Apple mobile device.
