Foxconn, the Chinese hardware manufacturer that builds chips for Apple's iPhone and iPad devices, is currently overhauling its entire factories and replacing most of its workforce with robots.

According to Dai Jia-peng, Foxconn's General Manager for Automation Technology Development Committee, the company is following a three-phase plan.

Foxconn's first phase is to set up automated workstations for job positions that are too dangerous for humans or which human workers don't want to do.

Phase two has Foxconn automating entire lines of productions, while in phase three the company will automate entire factories, keeping a few human workers around for supervising production, overseeing logistics, and carrying out the testing and visual inspection process.

Some factories are almost fully automated

According to Dai, three factories (Chengdu, western China, Shenzhen, southern China, and Zhengzhou, northern China) have already reached phase two or three.

Some factories are in a "lights out" state, where there's minimal human intervention in production lines.

Foxconn has developed its own robot technology to automate its production lines. The company can produce up to 10,000 robots per year and has already deployed over 40,000 robots in its factories across China.

Foxconn is the same company that had to install "suicide nets" in its factories due to poor working conditions which drove some employees to take their own lives.

A trend of replacing humans with robots

There have always been rumors and fears of robots replacing human workers. Like never before, in the past year, this rumor has started to become a daily reality for more and more companies and industry sectors.

For example, Uber is working on replacing drivers with autonomous vehicles. Google, as well, has partnered with Fiat Chrysler to launch a ride-sharing service that will use its self-driving technology and which aims to replace taxis in several cities.

Similarly, DARPA is developing autonomous flight technology to replace pilots on airliners.

Customer support representatives are also in danger of losing their jobs to a robot manufactured by Hitachi that can understand English and Japanese, and even talk back to humans.

But the sector where humans stand to lose the largest amount of jobs is the fast food industry.

Wendy's is currently in the midst of deploying self-ordering kiosks across 6,000 restaurants. The change was sparked by worker demands of a minimum wage of $15.

McDonald's itself is also testing similar self-ordering kiosks. Former McDonald's USA CEO Ed Rensi said this past year that a $35,000 robot is much cheaper and efficient when compared to a clumsy human that wants $15.

The change is also visible at national restaurant conventions, where robot manufacturers often go to peddle their latest products.

This past summer, a startup named Momentum Machines, who developed a robot that could churn out 400 burgers/hour, launched its first no-human "robot burger" restaurant in San Francisco.

Similarly, a California startup called Zume is also developing machines that make pizzas. The startup's founders said they can now invest the money they'd normally be spending on human workers on higher-quality pizza ingredients.

And there are many more other similar startups, for products such as sandwiches, sushi, noodles, and more. Oh, and let's not forget about the robot bartenders that you don't need to tip anymore, already deployed on some cruise ships.

All in all, a large number of human workers will need to find new jobs in the upcoming future as companies are bound to put profits first and get rid of their workforce for cheaper and more efficient automated robots.