Foxconn to Replace a Percentage of its Workers with 1M Robots

Foxconn, Apple's manufacturing partner, plans to replace some of its workers with 1 million humanoid robots.

Foxconn announced their plans of substituting most of their workers with one million robots for the next three years. According to Terry Gou, founder and chairman of Foxconn, the purpose of this action was to minimize the costs of labor and enhance the working productivity in the plant. With the addition of humanoid robot workers, simple routines such as spraying, welding and assembling could be done in no time.

Terry Gou also revealed that as of now, the company holds a number of 10,000 robots — which is expected to rise to over 300,000 next year and to a million in three years. Knowing that Foxconn currently employs 1.2 million workers, it is quite undeniable that they are considered to be the primary partner of most leading companies and manufacturers across the globe — including Apple and Sony. They have also been the company behind the assembling of Apple’s devices such as iPod, iPad, and iPhone. However, Foxconn has often been criticized for its low productivity.

Although there are no official reports regarding which robots will be used by Foxconn, sources close to the company revealed that they might utilize the concept model FRIDA designed by ABB. See the robot workers’ video after the jump.