Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer by revenue, plans to increase the use of robots in its factories 100-fold to one million within three years, reports the “Financial Times” (http://macte.ch/uy9QH). The Taiwan-based electronics manufacturing service provider makes iPads, iPhones and other products for Apple.
The move underlines the drastic changes China-based manufacturers are forced to make as the country’s unlimited supply of cheap labour is running out, the article adds. Currently, Foxconn employs 1.2 million people, with over one million workers from mainland China and 400,000 of the workers from Shenzhen.