Foxconn has been receiving a lot of flack from human rights activists who claims that the company mistreats its workers, and that they are more concerned with meeting deadlines and making profits rather than ensuring a safe and healthy work environment. With that kind of reputation, we’re sure many are wondering how will people react when Foxconn eventually replaces all their workers with robots?
You might recall an earlier earlier this week that suggested that Foxconn would be introducing “Foxbots” in their factories. These robots will help with the assembly process and while that’s great in terms of efficiency and technology, what about the workers? Will they be replaced? Turns out the answer is no.
According to recent report from Taiwan’s United Daily News, Foxconn has revealed additional details about the robots. Instead of replacing their factory employees, the Foxbots will instead play a more supporting role. The human workers will continue with more important tasks such as general assembly and quality control, while the robots will be used for less important tasks, such as tightening screws and position components for polishing.
Foxconn has plans to deploy about 10,000 of these robots through their factories, with Foxconn’s CEO, Terry Guo, revealing that Apple will be the first company that will take advantage of the new robots, presumably to help assemble the upcoming iPhone that has been pegged for a release later this year.
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