Apple seeks to cut number of iPhone assembly workers by half
Apple is reportedly telling its iPhone assemblers to replace up to 50% of their employees with automation within the next few years. “Apple’s senior vice president of operations, Sabih Khan, issued an edict to his organization, instructing managers to reduce the number of workers on iPhone final assembly lines by as much as 50% over the next few years,” reports The Information.
The effort is supposedly being lead by Peter Thompson, Apple’s vice president of technical operations for iPhone, VPG and core technologies.
“Thompson’s team has successfully automated parts of the iPhone’s assembly, working closely with manufacturing partners such as Foxconn, Luxshare Precision and Pegatron,” said The Information. “Those successes include machines that install metal brackets and flexible printed circuit boards onto components without human aid.”
The companies assembling iPhones for Apple have resisted the change because automation machinery costs millions of dollars while paying Chinese or Indian workers to do the same tasks is relatively inexpensive. But Apple is pressing ahead. And, as The Information notes, “If those efforts continue, they could have far-reaching implications for where Apple makes products and China’s labor market.”
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MacDailyNews Take: The greater the level of automation, meaning fewer workers to pay, the more feasible assembly plants in the U.S. and other first world countries become.
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