Foxconn to replace 60,000 workers with robots

If you thought artificial intelligence was some way away from replacing humans, here is an eye-opener – Foxconn, the largest contract electronics manufacturer in the world, has replaced 60,000 factory workers with robots.

The Apple and Samsung supplier's Foxconn One factory has "reduced employee strength from 110,000 to 50,000 thanks to the introduction of robots", a government official told the South China Morning Post.

Xu Yulian, head of publicity for the Kunshan region, added, "More companies are likely to follow suit."

China is investing heavily in a robot workforce.

In a statement to the BBC, Foxconn Technology Group confirmed that it was automating "many of the manufacturing tasks associated with our operations" but denied that it meant long-term job losses.

"We are applying robotics engineering and other innovative manufacturing technologies to replace repetitive tasks previously done by employees, and through training, also enable our employees to focus on higher value-added elements in the manufacturing process, such as research and development, process control and quality control.

"We will continue to harness automation and manpower in our manufacturing operations, and we expect to maintain our significant workforce in China."

Since September 2014, 505 factories across Dongguan, in the Guangdong province, have invested 4.2 billion yuan (£430 million) in robots, aiming to replace thousands of workers.

Kunshan, in Jiangsu province, is a manufacturing hub for the electronics industry.

Economists have issued dire warnings about how automation will affect the job market, with one report, from consultants Deloitte in partnership with Oxford University, suggesting that 35 per cent of jobs were at risk over the next 20 years.

Former McDonald's chief executive Ed Rensi recently told the US's Fox Business programme a minimum-wage increase to $15 an hour would make companies consider robot workers.

"It's cheaper to buy a $35,000 robotic arm than it is to hire an employee who is inefficient, making $15 an hour bagging French fries," he said.

Fosconn still employs more than 1.2 million people. It says robots are there to "replace repetitive tasks"

Automation is fast becoming a reality for workers of many of the world's biggest corporations, which are finding the falling costs of purchasing robots and programming those robots to be more attractive than retaining human labour.

In the US, the debate is playing out in the form of a $15 an hour minimum wage.

Overseas, in factories owned by Taiwan-based corporations like Foxconn, the process is accelerating even faster. Proponents of automation say the jobs that will be eliminated first are those that make human workers miserable and that, in the long term, more valuable positions will open up as more machines replace humans.

Notably for Foxconn, which has been mired in controversy for its factory conditions and high rate of worker suicides, robots also present a way to remedy poor public perception without necessarily improving the quality of life of its employees.