China sets up first unmanned factory; all processes are operated by robots

[jimmy olsen]

I'm sure Minsky will be along in a few minutes to explain how this will have no effect on the unemployment rate.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/business/china-sets-up-first-unmanned-factory-all-processes-are-operated-by-robots/articleshow/48238331.cms

China sets up first unmanned factory; all processes are operated by robots

BEIJING: A Chinese firm specialising in precision technology has set up the first unmanned factory at Dongguan city where all the processes are operated by robots, regarded as futuristic solution to tide over China's looming demographic crisis and dependence on manual workers.

In the plant, all the processes are operated by computer- controlled robots, computer numerical control machining equipment, unmanned transport trucks and automated warehouse equipment.
The technical staff just sits at the computer and monitors through a central control system.

At the workshop of Changying Precision Technology Company in Dongguan, known as the "world factory", which manufactures cell phone modules, 60 robot arms at 10 production lines polish the modules day and night, state-run People's Daily reported.

A few months ago, it required 650 workers to finish this process.

A robot arm can replace six to eight workers, now there are 60 workers and the number will be reduced to 20 in the future, Luo Weiqiang, general manager of the company told the Daily.

This is the first step of the "robot replace human" programme, it said.

In the next two years, the number of robots will be increased to 1,000 and 80 per cent process will be conducted by robots, said Chen Qixing, president of the company.

Compared with many skilled workers, these robots are new hands. But they made far more and better products than well- trained workers and experts, the report said.

With nearly 200 million people above 60 years and old age population set to rise sharply, China is bracing to face demographic crisis in the near future as it will have fewer work force.

Data at the Dongguan factory show that since the robots came to the plant the defect rate of products has dropped from over 25 per cent to less than 5 per cent and the production capacity from more than 8,000 pieces per person per month increased to 21,000 pieces.

The company is only a microcosm of Dongguan, one of the manufacturing hubs in China. The city plans to finish 1,000 to 1,500 "robot replace human" programmes by 2016.

With the implementation of "Made in China 2025" strategy, a growing number of "unmanned workshops or factories" will come out, the report said.

[Monoriu]

China just isn't that cheap anymore.  Labour costs have gone up, and it is hard to find sufficient number of young, healthy, desperate Chinese who are willing to endure the brutal military-style factories.  The RMB is too expensive.  The Party has also increased minimum wage many times in an attempt to maintain social stability.  I look at my clothes and they are now made in Bangladesh. 

I don't think these factories are truly replacing workers 1:1.  The workers aren't there in the first place.  They can't find enough people willing to work there.  The factory won't be there if robots aren't used.

[Eddie Teach]

Aren't there still hundreds of millions of peasants subsisting on whatever they can farm on a little patch of land?

[Monoriu]

Aren't there still hundreds of millions of peasants subsisting on whatever they can farm on a little patch of land?

Doesn't mean they are willing to work 14 hours a day, 6 days a week doing the same thing over and over in a factory.  Doesn't mean the factories are willing to hire them in the first place.  A lot of the peasants aren't suited for factory work. 

[The Brain]

Revolting.

[The Minsky Moment]

I'm sure Minsky will be along in a few minutes to explain how this will have no effect on the unemployment rate.

Before you roll you eyes, use the thing above and behind them first.

Why are Chinese companies at the higher end of the technological scale investing so much money in automation?  Because the working age population is shrinking and they are facing  labor shortages.  Under those circumstances, what is the effect on unemployment rates?

[Zanza]

How is this newsworthy? Have you ever been a manufacturing plant in the Western world? This is the normal progression of technology...

[Siege]

Robotization of the manufacturing sector means the factories will soon start to return to the good old USA, as predicted.