China's Push to Replace Human Workers With Robots Hits High Gear

Robotics  

Facing ever-increasing global competition and a fight to control costs, Chinese assembly lines are implementing more and more robotic systems.  The newest facilities being constructed are 'smart factories' with virtually no human labor.

The rise of the robots is not just a phenomenon in the western industrialized countries. In South China's Guangdong industrial hub, the city's first factory that will have virtually no human labor on the shop floor is being built. It's a push to address labor shortages and rising employee costs.  The move demonstrates the rise of "smart factories" worldwide is an indication of things to come.

"It is necessary to replace human workers with robots, given the severe labor shortage and mounting labor costs."

The realization that as the cost of Chinese labor continues to go up, the appeal of manufacturing there will diminish, the move to automate production is a natural economic direction.  For instance, in June 2011, Foxconn CEO Terry Gou announced plans to deploy one million robots across factory assembly lines.

"New technologies will likely cause the same hollowing out of China’s manufacturing industry over the next two decades that the U.S experienced over the past twenty years," according to Vivek Wadhwa.

The days are numbered for the huge human-powered assembly lines in China

Dongguan-based private company Everwin Precision Technology Ltd is pushing toward putting 1,000 robots in use in its first phase of the zero-labor project, China National Radio has reported. It said the company has already put first hundred robots on the assembly line.

"The 'zero-labor factory' does not mean we will not employ any humans, but what it means is that we will scale down the [amount] of workers by up to 90 percent," said Chen Qixing, the company's board chairman.

Manufacturers in the Pearl River Delta region have been hit by a shortage of an estimated 600,000 to 800,000 workers, according to data released by Chinese authorities.

Tens of thousands of migrant workers have reportedly gone back home inland for holidays and decided to stay because the cost of living is much less than the coastal cities and to be nearer to their families.

The country also faces the problem of an increasing number of aging migrant workers.

Although the number of migrant workers in China continued to grow in 2014, the rate of increase for the group has fallen consecutively for four years, and their average age is on the rise, according to a report released by the National Bureau of StatistiChina's contracting workforce may be a characteristic outcome of demographic patterns, but at the same time its presumable the aftereffect of globalization.

Related articles Will We Be Replaced By Robots?  On Capitalism and the Second Machine Age  Prototype Fusion Reactor in Five Years?

As the white collar class develops in China, so too do increasing compensation desires and the longing for occupations off the assembly lines. Because of these factors, China's business analysts are pushing for innovation overhauls and the utilization of smart robots.

"It is necessary to replace human workers with robots, given the severe labor shortage and mounting labor costs," said Di Suoling, head of Dongguan-based Taiwan Business Association.

Quality and competitiveness are also factors.

"You don't have to be an expert see the (quality) gap between Chinese cars and those made by companies like Audi and Volkswagen," said Li Shaohui, who oversees automatic control engineering for Great Wall Motors. "To beat those competitors we have no choice but to use a higher level of equipment and technology."

To that end, the nearby government in Guangdong will invest $152-billion to supplant people with robots inside three years. The push is on for application of robots in 1,950 companies across the province and plans to build two advanced industrial bases for robot production by the end of 2017.

Of course another huge factor propelling the move to robots in China and other developing economies is the rapid adoption of the technology in the more developed countries.  Robots like Rethink Robotics' Baxter and Amazon's use of Kiva robots in their distribution centers are only a few of the examples of how automation is both eliminating jobs and allowing companies to compete. China really has no alternative in this environment but to adapt too.

What the future means in terms of this change remains up for debate.


SOURCE  China Daily

By 33rd Square

Embed