People are gradually absent from Chinese production lines

Tram Ho

Welded orange robotic arm, assembled with extreme precision. Digital cameras with the help of computer vision technology track components as they move through the assembly lines. The robot automatically transports materials in and out of the finished product silently, without human supervision.

Humans have been removed from this assembly line, replaced by robots, technicians and engineers who operate remotely. They monitor events in real time through a digital dashboard, accessible from anywhere in the plant via a handheld device.

This is how Midea’s microwave factory in Foshan City works. According to factory manager Xu Nian’en, the job that once required 16 people now requires only four. Over the past six years, the company has invested 4 billion yuan ($622 million) in transformation, increasing efficiency by 62 percent. and reduce about 50,000 workers.

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Robotic arm at a Midea factory. (Photo: Handout)

In China’s dizzying digital transformation, the Midea factory represents part of the picture of the future, where manufacturing processes and employees need to adapt to increase automation. The challenge is more acute as China seeks to move up the value chain and confronts an impending demographic crisis that threatens to change its workforce for generations.

According to a report released on May 11 by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), China’s population grew at its slowest pace since the 1950s. The working-age population – between 15 and 59 years old – accounted for 63.35 % of China’s population in 2020, down 6.79% from the previous decade. Economics professor Wang Xiaosong from Renmin University said the ratio is getting lower and lower. According to Professor of Population Lu Jiehua of Peking University, the number in 2020 is only three-quarters of 2011 and will be just over half by 2050.

At the same time, young workers are less and less interested in working in factories. However, it must also be mentioned that the college graduation rate increased from 8.93% in 2010 to 15.5% in 2020, ahead of many developing countries.

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Midea factory is equipped with cameras, 5G sensors, AI support, tracking the movements of employees, bicycles, trucks. (Photo: Handout)

This is where artificial intelligence (AI) and technology come into play: many repetitive manual jobs will be replaced by higher-skill jobs in the future. Currently, it is difficult for factories to find young workers who want to stand on production lines. Yuan Jing, deputy director of a school equipment factory, said that younger generations prefer service jobs, such as livestreaming or office work.

Thousands of factories across the country have begun to replace manual labor with automation, robotics and transformation. Yuan’s company focused on developing technology for the new factory it was building, investing around 60 million yuan ($9.4 million) in automation, reducing the number of workers needed for some processes to one half. According to Mr. Zhou, Midea plans to replace 30% more workers in 3 years with the help of automation and digital transformation.

Over the past 10 years, China has gradually moved from a “factory” of low-cost, low-skilled labor to a smarter manufacturing hub. Factories apply AI to collect large amounts of data, automate many processes, while the government makes policies to manage, use available data to promote the Industrial Internet in the 5th five-year plan. 14. Companies build data centers to provide cloud services, supporting many industries to go online, while 5G networks meet the needs of smart factories and automation.

This transition is all state-oriented, from national initiatives such as the Made in China 2025 plan to local efforts. Governments finance automation businesses and robot manufacturers in many ways, at many levels, from low-interest loans, tax breaks to land rental incentives.

China has been the world’s largest industrial robot market since 2013 with leading companies such as Media. In 2017, Media acquired German industrial market robot maker Kuka for 4.5 billion euros. In March this year, Midea was the second Chinese company, after Haier, recognized by the World Economic Forum to own two “lighthouse factories” (using advanced technology).

According to Zhu Min, former Deputy Director of the International Monetary Fund and Director of the National Institute of Financial Research at Tsinghua University, digital transformation means changing a country’s core competitive advantage at the level. communication. The labor cost per Midea air conditioner is only about 10 yuan, which was unattainable in the past.

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A migrant worker waits to be hired by someone on the streets of Beijing. (Photo: EPA-EFE)

According to Xu Shaoyuan, a researcher at the State Council Development Research Center of China, the decline and aging of the working-age population has not had a significant impact on domestic industries due to progress. Technology can be faster than demographic changes. Thanks to improved physical fitness, many people are ready and able to work even beyond retirement age (60). With the advancement of technology, overall fitness requirements also decrease.

Meanwhile, despite the steady rise in labor costs over the past 10 years, many factories have moved from expensive coastal areas to cheaper areas in the west. According to NBS, the average annual salary of employees at private companies in urban areas in 2020, reached 57,727 yuan, nearly tripled from 20,759 yuan in 2010. For the manufacturing sector, the average salary The average is 74,641 yuan in 2020, higher than 58,049 yuan in 2017.

However, China’s robot force is still low compared to humans with a ratio of 187 robots to 10,000 employees. By comparison, Singapore has the highest density of robots, 918 robots per 10,000 employees, followed by South Korea with 868 robots per 10,000 employees, according to data from the International Association of Robotics. China’s plan to produce more industrial robots has also not been completed, the market is largely dominated by Japan, Europe and South Korea.

In addition, the negative impact will be on workers who are not willing or unable to adapt quickly enough to modern working technology. China or any other country must upgrade education and jobs. As manual work gradually became obsolete, many factory workers had to upgrade or change their profession.

According to the Midea plant manager, they need to be able to handle data analytics or other technologies. His current employees must change, or they will be replaced.

According to SCMP

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Source : Genk