Contents
Jon Barrett Managing Editor
Think future
When I heard news that Foxconn, the Chinesemanufacturer of electronic products, is planning to increase its workforce of industrial robots fromthe current 10,000 to 300,000 next year, then onemillion in three years, I wasn’t sure which emotions to call upon. I decided on amixture of anger and regret.
A decade or so ago, as westernmanufacturers started tomove their
production East I questioned whether this was a short or long-termstrategy. Naturally, one way to reduce a product’s cost is to improve the productivity of themanufacturing process.
As an automation engineer by trade, I knew the hard, expensive, long-
termsolution was a combination of design formanufacture skills and industrial robotics. The easier, cheaper, immediate answer was to find a manufacturing partner in a low-labour cost
environment.My guess was that manymanufacturers would choose option two, which they did.
However,my question was simple.What would happen when these low
labour cost producers started to experience the reality of employing large workforces over long periods?Would they themselves outsource to a new region or invest their new earnings in the automation thatWestern manufacturers chose to turn their backs on?My guess was option two.
If we want future generations to be able to earn themoney required to
purchase the productsmanufactured by these new armies of robot workers we have one tool left in the box: innovation. I guess it’s time to think our way to the future.
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