Foxconn has been working to replace its human workforce with robotic “Foxbots” for some time now, but it seems that a 2011 promise by CEO Terry Gou to unleash an army of production robots by the end of 2014 won’t be coming true after all.
According to the Chinese financial publication Jiemian, Foxconn is facing numerous difficulties building robots capable enough to carry out the kind of precision needed for constructing Apple devices. First and foremost is the fact that the bots are simply too clunky to do the work required of them — primarily because they were designed for automotive work rather than for assembling iPhones.
The current crop of bots reportedly have a production accuracy of 0.05mm, making them a little shy of the 0.02mm accuracy needed to build Apple products.
A previous report suggested that each robot costs between $20,000 and $25,000 to build, and should theoretically be capable of manufacturing up to 30,000 devices.
To move things forward, today’s report suggests that Foxconn needs to develop five flexible fingers for each bot for added precision — although it notes that it may be 1-2 more years before this technology is sufficiently advanced. Given that Terry Gou thought it would only be a couple of years in 2011, robot-built iPhone could wind up being even further away than this.
In the meantime, Foxconn has had to continue hiring (human) workers as fast as it can to meet Apple’s demands. Apple is reportedly so desperate to get iPhone 6 units out the door that it has even proved willing to slash its own profit margins by giving Foxconn more money per device as an incentive.
It was recently revealed that Foxconn is set to spend $2.6 billion building a new factory in Taiwan, exclusively to create displays for Apple. This will be the company’s first factory dedicated exclusively to building Apple components.
Via: GforGames
