ENGINEERINGNET.EU – The controversial Taiwanese company Foxconn Electronics is now producing robots for their own use in their manufacturing plants in China, states IFR, the International Federation of Robotics.
'The installed number of the so called 'Foxbot' robots is rather vague. The numbers differ between total 10,000 and 30,000 units over the last years', says IFR.
This however reveals Foxconn (enterprise Hon Hai Precision) is trying to solve problems with its employees and counter international pressure by introducing high levels of automation in its gigantic factories.
Foxconn is one of the largest electronics contract manufacturers in the world, and makes electronics for among others Apple.
The company has faced several scandals over the past few years and was accused of treating its employees poorly, the high working pressure resulting in a string of suicides.
A few years ago, Foxconn chairman Terry Gou announced plans to replace human employees by one million robots 'to do simple tasks' such as welding, spraying and assembling by 2015.
However, having built 15-30.000 robots in 2012, it is very unlikely Foxconn will be able to meet Gou's timetable.
The potential for automation in the Chinese manufacturing industry in general is said to be 'huge' for local and foreign robot suppliers in the coming years. For example European robot builder ABB recently celebrated delivery of 20,000th robot made in China.
Compared to highly automated countries like Japan, Korea and Germany with between 270 and 400 industrial robots per 10,000 employees, the robot density in China is comparably low with about 20 robots.
