China will soon use robots in assembly lines, as a factory in the country’s manufacturing hub in Guangdong Province has started constructing the city’s first zero-labor factory, the China Daily reported.
Everwin Precision Technology Ltd., a private company based in Dongguan, is planning to put 1,000 more robots in use in its first phase of the zero-labor project. The company has already put 100 robots on its assembly line, the report added.
"The 'zero-labor factory' does not mean we will not employ any humans, but what it means is that we will scale down the size of workers by up to 90 percent," Chen Qixing, the company's board chairman, said.
Chen added that from the current 2,000 workers, the company will only need at least 200 employees who will operate the software and do backstage management.
The report said the call to use smart robots in places around the Pearl River Delta, including Foshan and Dongguan, became widespread with the current labor shortage which have affected the manufacturing sector.
"It is necessary to replace human workers with robots, given the severe labor shortage and mounting labor costs," Di Suoling, head of Dongguan-based Taiwan Business Association, was quoted as saying.
According to data released after the Lunar New Year in February, manufacturers need an estimated 600,000 to 800,000 workers.
The report added that hordes of migrant workers have returned home and some decided to stay and settle down in their hometowns.
Aside from the shortage, China is also faced with a growing number of aging migrant workers, although the National Bureau of Statistics had reported that the rate of increase has dropped consecutively for four years.
Guangdong authorities have announced in March that they are planning to replace humans with robots within three years by investing 943 billion yuan ($152 billion) in the plan.
The report said that the local government will promote the use of robots in 1,950 companies across the province as it plans to build two advanced industrial bases that will build the robots by the end of 2017.