In movies about the future, robots have replaced humans in almost everything. That kind of future is unfolding as Apple's iPhone Taiwanese manufacturers Foxconn plans to gradually replace its human employees using software and in-house robotics units which would be known as Foxbots.
The manufacturing giant is looking to automate its production that will leave only a few human employees in the company. Foxconn's Automation Technology Development Committee general manager Dai Jia-peng told DigiTimes that the company has three phases into full automation of its production.
The first phase will place individual automated stations to replace humans for working on things they are unwilling to do or are dangerous. The second phase involves restructuring production lines to decrease the number of excess robots in use. The third and final phase, according to Dai, will leave the entire factories with only a few number of human employees designated for logistics, production, testing and inspection processes.
Foxconn has factories in western China, southern China and northern China that have are already ongoing the second and third phases. In May 2016, the company replaced its workers with 60,000 robots, BBC News reported. The British news organization reported that Foxconn has reduced its 110,000 employees to just 50,000.
Foxconn has already deployed more than 40,000 Foxbots to its factories in China and it is expected to deploy more as it produces 10,000 Foxbots per year. Foxconn's Zhengzhou factory is reported to produce 500,000 iPhones on a daily basis and Foxbots may be the reason behind the huge number of production.
While the company is nearing the final phase of its plan, other companies are expected to follow the trend. The automation plan is a good plan for Foxconn as the company faced dreadful working condition following an explosion in May 2012 that killed four people and got 12 injured. The real downside is hundred thousands of Chinese workers would be left with no work.
Watch the video below to see how the automation started last year: