I'm not sure what to think about this, but it may have a bearing on
the 'jobless recovery' we seem to have experienced....
Barry
http://www.gizmag.com/foxconn-gears-up-to-build-industrial-robots/20389/
Foxconn gears up to build industrial robots - world industrial robot
population to double
By Mike Hanlon
23:22 November 3, 2011
Foxconn's parent company, Taiwan-registered Hon Hai Precision Industry
Co., is getting into the industrial robot business in a big way
Image Gallery (5 images)
The world's industrial robotics industry will get considerably larger
in the near future as Taiwan-registered Hon Hai Precision Industry Co
(best known as Foxconn) has announced plans to begin building
industrial robots. Its initial plans of building one million
industrial robots for its own purposes will nearly double the number
of industrial robots in the world (currently The International
Federation of Robotics puts that number at 1,095,000). Foxconn is best
known as the largest exporter in China, the assembler/manufacturer of
Apple's iPad and iPhone and for the extraordinarily high suicide rate
of its employees.
Hon Nai is planning to invest heavily in the robotics area, with US
$223 million for a new Research and Development facility and more for
a robot manufacturing plant. The company is expecting to gross NT$120
billion (US$4 billion) from robot sales over the next 3-5 years and it
has the additional benefit of its own diverse manufacturing facilities
becoming its first and biggest customer.
Industry analyst and the publisher of the Robot Report, Frank Tobe,
told Gizmag that Foxconn's move has massive ramifications for the
robotics industry, which has previously been dominated by Japan and
Germany.
"It's a painful wakeup call to ABB, KUKA and Fanuc that their products
are not flexible and easily trainable enough to be useful to Foxconn
or any other new-tech electronics assembler and sub-components
manufacturer even though the electronics business is a big client of
those very same robot manufacturers", said Tobe.
"Things are changing from robots having a small library of moves,
where they precisely and reliably repeat those moves 24/7. New tech is
more personalized and manufacturing is following with small quantities
of thousands of variants of base products. Industrial robots now need
to keep up with those changes, and at present they have not, hence,
Foxconn's intent to build robots that will," said Tobe.
"Some are skeptical that what they are planning isn't really to build
robots but rather automation machinery. My sources are saying the
opposite - Foxconn is planning on entering the robot manufacturing
business with a variety of flexible, easily trainable and low-cost
assembly-line robots."
The project is expected to create around 2,000 jobs in Taiwan, and
initial indications from other news sources that the million
industrial robots would replace the jobs of half a million Chinese
workers have now been clarified.
The robots are intended to assist in overcoming Foxconn's well-
documented workforce problems, not by replacing those workers with
robots, but by supplementing those workers.
Hon Hai Chairman Terry Gou said that the company intends to maintain
its workforce and train existing workers for more important tasks. Gou
founded Hon Hai in 1974 and now produces consumer electronics products
for the likes of Apple, Acer, Amazon, Intel, Cisco, Hewlett-Packard,
Dell, Nintendo, Nokia, Microsoft, Motorola and Sony Ericsson.
Foxconn has had a lot of trouble hiring, training and maintaining a
workforce capable of such massive output and the industrial robots
will enable the company to reduce its hiring frenzy while improving
output and workforce morale.
Foxconn has 13 factories in China (including the massive industrial
complex referred to as "Foxconn City" in Shenzen, plus manufacturing
facilities in India, Mexico, Brazil, Slovakia, Poland and the Czech
Republic, where it is the country's second largest exporter.
A letter of intent with the local Taiwanese Government was signed last
week signifying the company's intention to build an intelligent
robotics and automation equipment manufacturing hub in Taiwan under
the name of Hon Hai subsidiary, Foxnum Technology.
The current size of the industrial robotics market puts Foxconn's
investment and intent to build a million industrial robots for its own
use in perspective.
In 2011 around 140,000 industrial robots will be sold globally, an
increase of 18% on 2010, and the largest number ever, after the global
financial uncertainty of 2009 saw just 60,000 units sold, the lowest
number for 15 years. The automotive and electronics industries were
the main drivers of the strong recovery.
In 2010, industrial robot sales were valued by the IFR at US$ 5.7
billion. It should be noted that the figures cited above generally do
not include the cost of software, peripherals and systems engineering.
Including the mentioned costs might result in the actual robotic
systems market value to be about three times as high. The worldwide
market value for robot systems in 2010 is hence estimated by IFR to be
US$17.5 billion.
Interestingly, the massive growth of industrial robots being deployed
over the next few years will undoubtedly put China at the top of the
automation industry._______________________________________________
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