China's Manufacturers Are Shifting Towards Zero-Labor Factories

[AndrewJin]

They are severely overestimating the things that industry needs. Even in a highly automated industry - chemicals and pharmaceuticals - you still need alot of people doing things like testing, regulatory affairs, etc. that machines can't take care of.

I don't think it's about complete taking place of human but about save labour and boost productivity. Then more labour can be used in tertiary sector.

 

[rcrmj]

judging the book by its cover are we.

Joking aside


Would China and India be economic powers today if it weren't for manufacturing.

what is your point? robot is a bad idea, or China is dropping manufacturing? dude, what are you trying to say?

robots replace human labour is a trend, and there are huge benefits associate with it````and it is the grand strategy for us to maintain manufacturing super house status.

you have zero clue of what China is capable of in terms of manufacturing sector and the labour shortage we have in factories```

all the means with robot is to be less dependent on low-skilled labour, to increase efficiency and competitiveness in the long run`````````the days for us to be low-end manufacture is gone, we are already at the top supply chain now, do you get this?

 

[TaiShang]

Made in China. Made by Robots
2015-05-05 CRIENGLISH.com Web Editor: Xie Tingting

An industrial robot is seen in this April 16, 2015 photo. [Photo: Zhang Mingshu/CFP]

Dongguan, one of China's major manufacturing hubs, will soon have its first robot factory in operation, Xinhua news agency reports.

The factory, which will mainly make mobile phone components, is currently testing 100 robots along its production lines, Xinhua says. The company plans to increase the number to 1,000 in the near future.

Automated manufacturing, with remote controls by human workers, will greatly improve quality and efficiency, says Ren Xiangsheng, a senior manager at the factory. A facility that traditionally requires 2,000-plus human workers will then be able to operate by no more than 200 humans.

Ren says his factory is following a citywide trend of switching to robotic manufacturing. Dongguan and some other cities in the Pearl River Delta, which is the center of China's manufacturing industry, have been encouraging local factories to adopt robotics.

Last year, Dongguan's city government designated a special fund to provide financial support to local factories and encourage them to make such human-to-robot switches. The city is looking to finish 1,000 to 1,500 such projects by 2016.

If the plan goes smoothly, it will alleviate the city's labor shortage of about 100,000 workers, according to Xinhua.

 

[AndrewJin]

Made in China. Made by Robots
2015-05-05 CRIENGLISH.com Web Editor: Xie Tingting

An industrial robot is seen in this April 16, 2015 photo. [Photo: Zhang Mingshu/CFP]

Dongguan, one of China's major manufacturing hubs, will soon have its first robot factory in operation, Xinhua news agency reports.

The factory, which will mainly make mobile phone components, is currently testing 100 robots along its production lines, Xinhua says. The company plans to increase the number to 1,000 in the near future.

Automated manufacturing, with remote controls by human workers, will greatly improve quality and efficiency, says Ren Xiangsheng, a senior manager at the factory. A facility that traditionally requires 2,000-plus human workers will then be able to operate by no more than 200 humans.

Ren says his factory is following a citywide trend of switching to robotic manufacturing. Dongguan and some other cities in the Pearl River Delta, which is the center of China's manufacturing industry, have been encouraging local factories to adopt robotics.

Last year, Dongguan's city government designated a special fund to provide financial support to local factories and encourage them to make such human-to-robot switches. The city is looking to finish 1,000 to 1,500 such projects by 2016.

If the plan goes smoothly, it will alleviate the city's labor shortage of about 100,000 workers, according to Xinhua.

The future for Pearl River is quite obvious. For sectors like textile industry which are hard to be automated, just let it go. For other sectors, automation is the only solution. A lot of members here tend to narrow the extent of robotization and automation, they may have an image of humanoid appearance. For instance, the way boxed meals sold on HSR are cooked semi-automatically, just a few laborers are needed but of huge output.

 

[TheTruth]

When our GDP per capita is on par with the US, we can comfortably reduce our population even by half.

China's population will peak to 1.5-1.7 billion in the near future, then start to decline by the time when the robotic automation is good enough to handle a large part of the manufacturing base.

I say reclaim 70-80% of the deserts and increase China's population to 2.5 billion, and maybe 500 million more robotic laborers.

Did I ever comment on Chinese infrastructure? I didn't.

And you are wrong. China DOESN'T have the biggest market yet. China's GDP is 60% that of United States, and even in that GDP consumption is a much lower fraction than the United States. Of course China may have a bigger market for certain specific things. But overall, China doesn't YET have the biggest market.

Depends, the US counts all sorts of things as consumption.

 

[cirr]

4/23/2015

China, Russia Team Up On $200 Million Robotics Deal

In a big move for Sino-Russian economic relations, the Skolkovo Foundation outside Moscow and China’s Cybernaut Investment Group have signed a $200 million agreement to create a joint Russian-Chinese business incubator, robotics center and venture fund. The 1,500-square-meter R&D center will be at the Skolkovo Center and will house at least 15 Skolkovo resident companies that are conducting research into IT and robotics, space, energy-efficiency technologies and new materials.

The Cybernaut robotics center will be created in China with Skolkovo’s help and will implement a joint acceleration program for Skolkovo resident companies to introduce them into the Chinese market. Additionally, a $200 million Russian-Chinese venture fund will invest in Skolkovo resident companies that specialize in IT and robotics and also in space and telecommunication technologies. The deal was announced this week at a forum in Beijing; the agreement comes into force in the third quarter of 2015.

Visitors to ‘meet the robots’ at Skolkovo start at a young age

The tie-up comes with the strong support of the Russian government and may presage further innovation deals between the two world superpowers. Arkady Dvorkovich, the Deputy Prime Minister of Russia called it an ‘important step in the development of Russian-Chinese cooperation in the area of innovations’ and cites the expertise of both countries in making it work.

“In recent years China has made great breakthroughs in the development of high-tech, created large technoparks and successfully developed its own high-tech corporations, some of which have become global brands. “Russia, for its part, has always excelled in scientific research. We have serious know-how in the area of nuclear, space and information technologies. I am certain, that by uniting efforts, Russia and China can reach substantial success in the development of innovations and thereby make a significant contribution into our mutual economic development”, he said.

The Chinese parties to the deal were similarly effusive about the potential of the co-operation between the two countries. Du Hao is the Managing Partner of Cybernaut Investment Group and believes that the strategic alliance between Russia and China is complementary. “Technological innovation is the key to achieve social and economic goals, both in emerging and developed markets, and is a key growth area for us. Recently Cybernaut created an Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center in the area of “One Belt and One Road” to help Chinese companies to fulfill their innovative potential.

The Skolkovo Technopark shines brightly in Moscow

The news represents a significant milestone in the development of the Skolkovo Foundation. The non-profit organization was founded in September 2010 by the Russian government with the objective of accelerating Russia’s transformation from a resource-intensive to an innovation-based economy.

This progress, however, has not been straightforward. A 2014 report from the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office said between the inception of the project in 2010 and 2012, more than $600 million out of Skolkovo’s total budget of $1 billion was spent negligently in ‘the absence of budget control’, a scathing denouncement of the project’s early days. Things have improved, however, since that low point.

According to Skolkovo, the Foundation’s 1,000 in-house startups have now generated more than $1 billion, brought in $220 million in investment, created 13,500 jobs and has filed more than 1,300 patent applications. Recently, the Foundation announced that a further $4 billion would be devoted to the project over the next six years, so support for the project remains strong at the highest level of the Russian government.

While geopolitical events are an on-going issue with anything to do with Russia, its current emphasis on innovation and cooperation with China within its tech ecosystem may have a significant global effect on how business will be conducted over the rest of the decade.

China, Russia Team Up On $200 Million Robotics Deal - Forbes

 

[cirr]

Roboticists unveil their latest creepily realistic humanoid - and it bears a striking resemblance to Sarah Palin

• Humanoid resembling the former Governor of Alaska is called YangYang
• 'She' can change facial expressions, speak and shake hands
• Robot is on show at Global Mobile Internet Conference in Beijing, China

By SARAH GRIFFITHS FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 11:08 GMT, 29 April 2015 | UPDATED: 14:10 GMT, 29 April 2015

A humanoid robot named Yangyang is the latest to be revealed in China.

Dressed in a full-length coat, the android can display a wide range of facial expressions and can speak, move its head, and raise its hands to greet people convincingly.

And the machine bears an uncanny - yet apparently accidental - resemblance to former Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin.

A humanoid robot named Yangyang (pictured left) is the latest to be revealed in China and it bears an uncanny resemblance to former Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin (right)

Yangyang is one of a number of impressively realistic robots to be unveiled at the Global Mobile Internet Conference (GMIC) 2015 in Beijing, China.

The android was produced jointly by China's Shanghai Yangyang Intelligent Robot Science Service Centre and renowned Japanese robotics professor Hiroshi Ishiguro, who has created some of the world’s most eerily lifelike androids.

Yangyang was created with the aim of popularising robotics among the young and its resemblance to Sarah Palin seems to be coincidental.

'She' is not the first robot to resemble a famous human, however.

Yangyang (pictured) is one of a number of impressively realistic robots to be unveiled at the Global Mobile Internet Conference (GMIC) 2015 in Beijing, China. A number of tiny motors beneath its rubbery skin enable it to alter its facial expressions (pictured)

Dressed in a full-length coat, the android can display a wide range of facial expressions and can speak, move its head, and raise its hands to greet people convincingly (pictured)

An early version of a machine called Han made headlines because it was sculpted to look like Albert Einstein, complete with a bushy moustache and a shock of white hair.

The Einstein humanoid made facial expressions by using multiple motors, which whirred into action and subtly adjusted multiple points of articulation around his mouth and brown eyes.

The latest iteration of Han can mimic expressions, hold simple conversations and smile, wink, frown and even act drunk, was also shown off at another conference taking place in Hong Kong.

Around 40 motors control its face to form delicate facial expressions, according to its creators, US-based Hanson Robotics.

The android (pictured) was produced jointly by China's Shanghai Yangyang Intelligent Robot Science Service Centre and renowned Japanese robotics professor Hiroshi Ishiguro, who has created some of the world’s most eerily lifelike androids

Grace Copplestone, manager at the firm, said: '[Han] has cameras on his eyes and on his chest, which allow him to recognise people's face, not only that, but recognise their gender, their age, whether they are happy or sad, and that makes him very exciting for places like hotels for example, where you need to appreciate the customers in front of you and react accordingly.'

It uses skin similar to Yangyang's, made from a rubbery material enabling it to resemble human flesh.

This is a patented material called Frubber, which is short for flesh rubber.

Yangyang (pictured) has been created with the aim of popularising robotics among the young and her resemblance to Sarah Palin seems to be coincidental

A 'male' robot called Han (pictured left and right) that can mimic expressions, hold simple conversations and smile, wink, frown and even act drunk, was also shown off at another conference taking place in Hong Kong

It contains realistic pores that measure four to 40 nanometers across - there are 10 million nanometers in one centimetre.

Ms Copplestone envisages that Han could one day work in hospitality, such as manning reception desks of hotels, as well as in casinos, theme parks and museums.

But it could also be used by doctors as realistic mannequins, or care for elderly patients.

'We believe a human face on a robot makes it far more approachable, and efficient, and effective in caring for older people,' she said.

 

[cirr]

Japanese robotic scientist Hiroshi Ishiguro (right) poses next to girl android robot named Kodomoroid (left) who can read the news without stumbling once and recited complex tongue-twisters glibly in a demonstration. 'She' can move her lips in time with a voice over, blink and sway

Around 40 motors control Han's face to form delicate facial expressions, according to 'his' creators, US-based Hanson Robotics. His skin is made from a patented material called Frubber, which is short for flesh rubber

ANDROID CLONE OF TV PRESENTER BECOMES FIRST TO HOST SHOW

Earlier this month a cross-dressing Japanese television star's robotic clone has made its 'unnervingly real' on-screen debut to become the first android to host its own show.

Japanese engineers pushed the clone of transvestite entertainer Matsuko Deluxe into the limelight.

Mr Deluxe, who is popular in Japan for his frankness, said it was 'fascinating' come face-to-face with his lookalike.


Roboticists unveil their latest humanoid YangYang and it looks like Sarah Palin | Daily Mail Online
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

 

[Bussard Ramjet]

I say reclaim 70-80% of the deserts and increase China's population to 2.5 billion, and maybe 500 million more robotic laborers.



Depends, the US counts all sorts of things as consumption.

I completely agree with you here. Technology is the key to everything, even sustaining population. Rather, it has always been. Just in the past century almost every country has tripled their population. All this is due to better technology, industrialization etc.

If it comes down to only one thing, I will call it energy. If you have a safe way to create, ample, cheap energy, Humans can do wonders. Why?

Once you have energy, you just need to distill sea water, and send them via pipelines, to where ever one wants.

You can via good methods grow as much food as you want. Remember, it is energy that brings about food. Just imagine, if we can create food without the sun, but in artificial settings. Like take a 100 storey building, and each floor of that building is planted with crop, and light supplied to it from above.

Not only this, don't forget, that a lot of desert land can be converted arable, given enough water, which we can have given enough energy. Rather, almost any kind of land can be made arable with enough processes, energy, and water.

Imagine, if we can have floating cities, so that we can finally use the surface of earth covered with water. Most of the Earth's surface is covered with water.

Just imagine, if we can find a better way of exploiting resources underneath water. There was a study that said, that we Humans, know more about the surface of Moon, than about Ocean Bed. While we do drill in seas at depths upto 3000m, there is so much resource underneath, that one can't even comprehend.

Imagine, if we can bring back resources from Solar System to Earth.

Hence, the answer all lies in Technology. But the answer is not to reduce Humans, but to use technology to sustain as many humans as possible. For a very long time, Humans will have no competition in innovation, deep learning, and scientific progress. For a very long time!

I say reclaim 70-80% of the deserts and increase China's population to 2.5 billion, and maybe 500 million more robotic laborers.



Depends, the US counts all sorts of things as consumption.

Also, the term "robot laborers" is misleading.

Half of all the world's robots are used only in automobiles. Only to build cars. That is because cars, can afford the cost. Also the replacement rate of cars is small, that is one can plan an assembly line and operate it for years before substantial change.

Other industries are very different. There is not much automation that takes place in Textiles. Machines are simply incapable of having the dexterity of human fingers to weave, and form things.

The best robots in the market that come are with say 7-8 degrees of freedom. In humans, even one finger alone has 5 proper degrees of freedom, and many small minute capacities to further adjust. Further, the amount of machine learning is just enormous. You must have seen guys. If humans do something for some time, they can keep doing that thing without even paying attention to them. All the parts of the body automatically fall to their correct place.

Then just see the sensors. A human finger has millions of independent sensors, and with an inbuilt machine-learned mechanism for these sensors to work.

Humans are real experts at deep-learning. They start doing it from the moment they are born.

Coming back to point, apart from automobiles, which won't migrate anywhere simply due to low cost labor, all other sectors are very less automated, especially textile, and electronic assembling.

 

[antonius123]

Are you telling me that Chinese infrastructure and supply chain is better then United States and Canada ? I ask you again, if one can produce the same goods in USA with robotics labour, manufactured by Chinese manufacturer in China, and sell it direct to Walmart at much lower price, plus shipping in hours compare to months or weeks from China. Where do u think they will buy from. Keep in mind we are talking about robotic labour.

Simple.

No country currently cant beat china in term of supply chain, or manufacturing environment.

For example mobile phone industry, they need chain of supply from processor, LCD, speaker, etc etc, and it is china that has the strong and efficient supply chain now. If you move the mobile phone factory to USA/Canada/Other factory, you still need to import the components from China because the supply chain environment in other countries is not as established as in China. And no supplier from other country can beat China price.

I never claimed that Japan was number 1. And China doesn't cover all. In almost all industries, China is at the low to medium end of the value chain. Japan and US own all the core technology.

And as I said, it will be the markets that determine these stuff. Not the manufacturing base.

China is already like South Korea in term of manufacturing and commercial technology.

Most of Japanese and American high tech products are also produced by China now, with some small exception. Prove me if I am wrong.

So you are expecting that other countries will not catch up? Especially when China is itself planning to invest billions in infrastructure in other countries. It will be a very slippery slope to rely on other people's continuous misfortune and/or stupidity.

Every nation has its time, and today the progress can be made more rapidly. Don't forget, people used to say the same things about China.

It is not easy to catch up with china now.

No country can match china in term of Market size, supply chain manufacturing, pool of engineers, and infrastructure.

For advanced countries like Germany, Europe, USA they still have bigger chance due to advanced automation technology and industry 2.0. But for other developing countries it will be difficult.

You should hold your feet on earth. Your productivity is still about a seventh that of United States. Also, as I say the number of humans in the future would determine how much you are able to put into engineering and science.

Any evidence?

IF by 1/7 productivity China can beat USA, then can you imagine how china with 1/1 productivity will beat further?

Did I ever comment on Chinese infrastructure? I didn't.

And you are wrong. China DOESN'T have the biggest market yet. China's GDP is 60% that of United States, and even in that GDP consumption is a much lower fraction than the United States. Of course China may have a bigger market for certain specific things. But overall, China doesn't YET have the biggest market.

Dude ... China already the biggest market for automotive, mobile phone, TV, computers, steel, machines, and many moree ...

GM, Mercedez, Apple sell more in China than in USA, eventhough China's GDP is still lower than that of USA.

 

[ChineseTiger1986]

I say reclaim 70-80% of the deserts and increase China's population to 2.5 billion, and maybe 500 million more robotic laborers.



Depends, the US counts all sorts of things as consumption.

We don't have much water source in the western part, hence it cannot host so many people there.

 

[TheTruth]

We don't have much water source in the western part, hence it cannot host so many people there.

I think a combination of water purification technology and diverting excess water from Tibet could make it possible

 

[TaiShang]

Roboforce: Chinese plant replaces 90 percent of workers with robots
Published time: May 06, 2015 19:04

Reuters/Lori Shepler

China, Gizmos, SciTech
A Chinese company has begun building the first factory in the Dongguan manufacturing hub in the south of the country which will be staffed almost exclusively by robots, in a countrywide automation drive.

Initially about 1,000 robots will be used at the factory of the Shenzhen Evenwin Precision Technology Co, which produces components for mobile phones. "The use of industrial robots will help the company to reduce the number of frontline workers by at least 90 percent," said Chen Xingqi, the chairman of the company’s board, China Daily reported. "When all the 1,000 industrial robots are put into operation in the coming months, we will only need to recruit fewer than 200 software technicians and management personnel."

Shenzhen Evenwin Precision Technology expects that the plant's production capacity can amount to US$322 million annually. It does not, however, say how much it has invested in the project.

More and more factories in the Pearl River Delta - an urban and industrial hub in South China often dubbed 'the world's workshop' - are starting to introduce robots in a bid to replace human labor. But today the region faces two problems which force it to look for new development strategies including mass automation.

The first problem is a labor shortage caused by more people rejecting factory jobs. The Department of Human Resources and Social Security of the Guangdong province (where Pearl River Delta is situated) says local industry lacks about 600,000 to 800,000 workers.

The second problem is that Chinese labor is becoming less cheap. China has long been the most attractive country for foreign companies because of its low-cost workforce but now China is starting to lose its advantage. Numbers aggregated by Bloomberg suggest an average Chinese factory worker earns just under US$500 per month, while in Thailand the number is under US$350, and in Cambodia it is only about US$75.


Russia and China set up $200mn hi-tech fund


Guangdong’s authorities and companies are counting on automation of the manufacturing process. The province plans to invest the equivalent of about US$154 billion in robotization of manufacturing production, according to the South China Daily. Guangzhou, the capital of Guandong, has set a goal to automate 80 percent of its manufacturing production by 2020.

The International Federation of Robotics regards China as the largest market for industrial robots with 36,560 industrial robots sold to China in 2013 (20 percent of the worldwide number). By 2017 China can have more robots in industry than any other country in the world. But China’s robot-to-worker ratio is still rather low, at about 30 robots per 10,000 employees. South Korea employs the most robots, with 396 per 10,000 workers, followed by Japan with 332.

 

[BoQ77]

Japanese did this several decades ago.
No surprise.
But robots aren't the only means of automation.

And manything can't complete with robots only.

Agree that hundred million Chinese people need jobs

 

[AndrewJin]

Japanese did this several decades ago.
No surprise.
But robots aren't the only means of automation.

That's one of the reasons why their productivity per capita is extremely high.