President Trump’s vision of massive U.S. Apple iPhone assembly hinges on robotics

“President Trump has visions of a massive Apple factory opening in the U.S. to churn out the latest iPhone,” Jed Graham reports for Investor’s Business Daily. “The idea is not completely far-fetched, but one thing seems clear: If it happens, most of the new jobs will go to robots.”

“Even in lower-cost China, Foxconn, which assembles the iPhone there, reportedly replaced 60,000 workers with robots at one facility. That’s more than half the facility’s workforce. Foxconn says it is adding 10,000 ‘Foxbots’ per year,” Graham reports. “If China must shrink its costs with a massive deployment of robots, U.S.-based manufacturers that pay much higher wages and benefits will face the same pressures.”

“A 2015 study by Boston Consulting Group found that an automotive industry welder earned about $25 an hour, including benefits, while a robot could do the job for $8 an hour, including installation, maintenance and operating costs. The gap is expected to widen sharply as technology improves,” Graham reports.

“In a postelection interview, The New York Times asked Trump whether he was worried that companies will keep their factories in the U.S. but automate their workers out of jobs. ‘They will, and we’ll make the robots too,’ Trump said. He added: ‘Right now we don’t make the robots. We don’t make anything. But we’re going to. I mean, look, robotics is becoming very big and we’re going to do that.'”

Graham reports, “Trump is more right than wrong about the U.S. ceding an opportunity, writes Frank Tobe, publisher of the Robot Report. ‘Two-thirds of the robotics industry and 100% of industrial robots are manufactured outside of the U.S. by non-U.S. companies.'”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: As per Foxbots, we’d much prefer Fembots!

The robots will come eventually. There are too many benefits. They don’t get tired. They don’t make mistakes. — MacDailyNews, December 5, 2014

SEE ALSO:
Virginia becomes first U.S. state to legalize delivery robots – March 2, 2017
Chinese factory replaces 90% of human workers with robots; production rises by 250%, defects drop by 80% – February 7, 2017
Can President Trump bring Apple iPhone factories back to America? – February 4, 2017
Foxconn has 10 lights-out production lines, aims to fully automate entire factories – December 30, 2016
Apple iPhone production in the U.S.is actually straightforward and not expensive – November 24, 2016
President-elect Trump tells Apple CEO Tim Cook that he’d like to see Apple make products in the U.S. – November 23, 2016
Could President Trump be the catalyst for an all-American iPhone? – November 18, 2016
Apple could make iPhones in the U.S.A. under President Trump, sources say – November 17, 2016
President Trump’s Made-in-America hurdle: Asia – November 16, 2016
Apple assembler Foxconn now has 40,000 ‘Foxbot’ robots working at factories in China – October 5, 2016
Apple supplier Foxconn replaces 60,000 factory workers with robots – May 25, 2016
Foxconn robots better, but still not precise enough to assemble Apple iPhones – December 5, 2014
Foxconn CEO disappointed with current-gen iPhone-assembling robots; next-gen ‘Foxbots’ in the works – September 22, 2014
Foxconn to deploy ‘Foxbot’ robots for iPhone assembly – July 7, 2014
Why Foxconn’s iPhone robots could create American jobs – February 2, 2014
Apple dives deeper into designing and inventing robots, other manufacturing tech – November 22, 2013
Robots made Apple switch to ‘Made in the U.S.A.’ Macs – December 11, 2012
Foxconn’s 2012 plan: More robots, no layoffs, zero suicides, new factories – November 22, 2011
Foxconn to replace some workers with 1 million robots within 3 years – July 31, 2011