Wednesday, 14 November 2012 20:00

FoxBots arrived to Foxconn factories

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Foxconn has started to implement the strategy of introducing robots in their production line. This was previously announced by the company's chairman Terry Gou. The announcement originally included replacing one million Foxconn employees with robots in the next three years and the first 10,000 units have already been implemented in at least one factory.

By the end of the year another 20,000 robots called FoxBot should also be installed on the production lines at Foxconn. There are only few technical details about FoxBot available, but this is expected since Foxconn produces them itself and there is no need for disclosure of trade secrets to the public. FoxBots have the classic form of a robotic arm and are designed to perform simple repetitive tasks such as lifting, selecting and placing certain parts of the final product.

The latter actions are very common in the manufacturing process of the typical device (tablets, smart phones and laptops), in Foxconn's production program and with the advancement of technology, the complexity of possible actions that the robot will be capable of will certainly increase. The price of each robot ranges between 20 and 25 thousand dollars according to some estimates.
Although a certain level of automation was already present in Foxconn, in case of the FoxBots their role is not simply to complement the work of people, but to completely replace human workers. With the introducing of greater automation in the manufacturing lines Foxconn could at least partially improve working conditions in their factories, at least for those workers who are still working after the introduction of FoxBots. The company currently employs about 1.2 million people.

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Read 3045 times Last modified on Wednesday, 14 November 2012 20:06

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