It's started: Robot Uprising Begins as China Turns to Machines to Fill in Gaps in the Workforce

[egodoc222]

If the instrument costs $2M in US and costs $6M in India, then some middlemen is making a killing.
I don't believe the taxes and shipping costs add up to $4M, even if it is air freighted.
A big chunk of the $4M goes to the middlemen.

May be, and these middle men pay back to the manufacturer... I'd you leave that aside 2m$ is still helluva lot money...!!

 

[ahojunk]

Robot patrols at Zhengzhou railway station
2017-02-18 12:02 | Xinhua | Editor: Wang Fan

A patrol robot is set at Zhengzhou East Railway Station recently, which can monitor air quality, temperature and humidity all day long, discover fire emergency and also help keep clear of the station at night.

A robot patrols at the Zhengzhou East Railway Station in Zhengzhou, capital of central China's Henan Province, Feb. 15, 2017. (Xinhua/Zhang Tao)

A robot attracts the attention of a child at the Zhengzhou East Railway Station in Zhengzhou, capital of central China's Henan Province, Feb. 15, 2017. (Xinhua/Zhang Tao)

A robot patrols at the Zhengzhou East Railway Station in Zhengzhou, capital of central China's Henan Province, Feb. 15, 2017. (Xinhua/Zhang Tao)

Passengers look at a patrol robot at the Zhengzhou East Railway Station in Zhengzhou, capital of central China's Henan Province, Feb. 15, 2017. (Xinhua/Zhang Tao)

Passengers look at a patrol robot at the Zhengzhou East Railway Station in Zhengzhou, capital of central China's Henan Province, Feb. 15, 2017. A patrol robot is set at Zhengzhou East Railway Station recently, which can monitor air quality, temperature and humidity all day long, discover fire emergency and also help keep clear of the station at night. (Xinhua/Zhang Tao)

 

[TaiShang]

China starts developing 256-slice CT scanner
Xinhua, February 19, 2017

China on Saturday launched a program to develop its own 256-slice Computerized Tomography (CT) scanner to gain a footing in the manufacturing of advanced medical imaging equipment.

The program is led by MinFound Medical Systems Co. Ltd (MinFound), based in Zhejiang Province, and joined by nine other entities including research institutes and hospitals. The program also receives a funding support of 50 million yuan (7.35 million U.S. dollars) from the state.

MinFound's CEO Jiang Haochuan said the latest scanner, compared with its older generation products, is faster and smarter, produces better images, and emits less radiation.

With a single rotation of its gantry, the device can produce clear images of any human organ, he said. It can, for example, help cardiologists make better diagnosis with high quality images of the heart and its arteries.

China's current 256-slice CT scanners are all pricy imports. Industry insiders say once the home-made equivalent hits the market, it will become more available to patients in need and cut their medical bills.

 

[AndrewJin]

China starts developing 256-slice CT scanner
Xinhua, February 19, 2017

China on Saturday launched a program to develop its own 256-slice Computerized Tomography (CT) scanner to gain a footing in the manufacturing of advanced medical imaging equipment.

The program is led by MinFound Medical Systems Co. Ltd (MinFound), based in Zhejiang Province, and joined by nine other entities including research institutes and hospitals. The program also receives a funding support of 50 million yuan (7.35 million U.S. dollars) from the state.

MinFound's CEO Jiang Haochuan said the latest scanner, compared with its older generation products, is faster and smarter, produces better images, and emits less radiation.

With a single rotation of its gantry, the device can produce clear images of any human organ, he said. It can, for example, help cardiologists make better diagnosis with high quality images of the heart and its arteries.

China's current 256-slice CT scanners are all pricy imports. Industry insiders say once the home-made equivalent hits the market, it will become more available to patients in need and cut their medical bills.

China's top 10 medical centres are all switching to the domestically-designed new-generation CTs and MRIs.

 

[艹艹艹]

http://asia.nikkei.com/Features/FT-...turing-jobs-vanish-as-robots-take-over?page=2
March 3, 2017 9:30 am JST

FT Confidential Research
Chinese manufacturing jobs vanish as robots take over
Migrant workers vulnerable to companies chasing productivity gains through automation

Robots covered in plastic sheets are seen at a plant of Kuka Robotics in Shanghai.© Reuters

Rapidly growing appetite for industrial robots in China is set to hasten the decline in manufacturing jobs, according to the findings of an FTCR survey.

As part of a top-down push, local governments are subsidising companies to produce and purchase robots, while most companies reported productivity gains and forecast a reduced need for frontline workers.

This is not a zero-sum game: companies also cited a growing need for more skilled workers. This is creating demand for vocational skills and the robot revolution will be able to absorb only a minority of such workers.

The increasingly rapid adoption of industrial robots on Chinese production lines is set to hasten the fall in manufacturing employment. Among companies that intend to purchase robots in the coming 12 months, 72.7 per cent said this would mean job losses, according to an FT Confidential Research survey conducted across manufacturing centres in Guangdong in the south and Zhejiang on the east coast.

Industrial automation is seen as both an answer to China's falling working age population and a path to the kind of innovative, efficient economy that the leadership is trying to nurture. The government is aiming for a "robot density" of 150 units per 10,000 workers by 2020, up from 49 in 2015.

Predictably, this has triggered a funding frenzy among local governments, which may be keen to follow the leadership's line on industrial policy but also need little excuse to funnel state funds to companies in their region. But China's robot revolution is about more than unaccountable bureaucrats throwing subsidies at state firms.

By 2019, the International Federation of Robotics believes China will account for 40 per cent of the global market for industrial robots, from just over 12 per cent in 2010 (see chart).

Of the 30 companies surveyed by FTCR, 77.4 per cent said the costs associated with installing robots on production lines were recouped within three years. Among respondents, 41.9 per cent estimated they had spent more than Rmb10m ($1.5m) on robots for their factories, while 38.7 per cent said their purchases were subsidised by the government. In Zhejiang, for example, the provincial government offers subsidies of up to Rmb2.5m for companies to purchase robots.

The installation of robots helps companies address the pressures of rising wages. FTCR's survey of labour demand has found manufacturing wages increasing every month since it began in June 2012, although wage pressures are clearly easing (see chart).

But most companies surveyed also reported clear operational improvements following the installation of robots, with 96.8 per cent saying productivity increased - and by an average 27 per cent - while 77.4 per cent reported a drop in unit production costs.

Henghui Furniture in Dongguan, a manufacturing hub in Guangdong province, cut 40 of its 200 positions over the past two years after installing four robotic arms. Henghui general manager Lu Binxin says the robots have created payroll savings of Rmb1.9m a year, equivalent to the cost of the equipment. Profits rose more than 10 per cent last year, up from annual increases of 5-10 per cent before the robots were installed, Lu estimates.

Robots squeezing out frontline workers

Among companies surveyed, 74.2 per cent said the number of workers employed fell after robots were installed. Unskilled positions were hit hardest, with 80.6 per cent reporting a drop in the number of frontline workers employed (see chart).

The Guangdong branch of the Development Research Center, a State Council-level think-tank, estimates that robots reduced labour demand by 40,000 positions a year in Dongguan between 2014 and 2016.

Local governments are encouraging downsizing, at the expense of migrant workers, as part of the centre's push for a more efficient economy. In Zhejiang, the government plans to cut 500,000 manufacturing jobs per year, partly through industrial automation. A provincial government official acknowledged that its robot subsidy programme is partly intended to encourage unskilled migrant workers to return home.

Workers at Xinwei Plastic in the eastern city of Tiantai went on strike at the end of 2015 in response to plans to cut a third of the workforce after introducing five handling robots. Desperate to end the dispute and restart production, management negotiated early retirement packages for eight of the workers slated for redundancy, referred 20 to a neighbouring factory and bought out another 10.

"We underestimated the difficulties involved in replacing labour with robots," said Zhang Feng, Xinwei's general manager.

Central and local governments also see robots as an answer to China's demographic constraints. The country's working age population has already begun falling and is expected to continue dropping until 2050 (see chart). Manufacturing is still the biggest employer by sector in China, although the numbers employed in this sector have fallen by 0.79 per cent per year on average over the past three years.

The threat of robot deployment will continue to fuel labour disputes on the shop floor, although 60 per cent of companies surveyed said workers lost through automation were redeployed or retrained.

Wuhan-based Jointown Pharmaceutical Group, one of China's largest drug distributors, has cut the number of workers at its central warehouse from over 100 to just 13 since automating operations in 2012. Redundant staff have been sent to work for new Jointown branches across Hubei province.

"Robots have allowed us to store and deliver the same amount of goods with fewer people," said Zhang Qingsong, Jointown vice-president. "But business is growing so fast that we need more workers to perform those duties that robots can't."

A dozen workers lost their jobs in 2015 after Hubei-based Tianrui Electronic automated potting, which makes electronics resistant to shock or vibration. Instead of laying them off, Tianrui enrolled unemployed workers in a training programme and made them quality inspectors.

No zero-sum game

Such new demand in the labour market may help to absorb a minority of positions lost on production lines. Zhitong, a labour exchange in Dongguan, reported a threefold jump in robot-related job postings in 2016 from the previous year. Our survey found 80.6 per cent of companies reporting a drop in the number of frontline workers employed following the deployment of robots on production lines, but the same proportion said the number of technical staff either stayed the same or increased.

Robot-related positions require specialised knowledge of machinery and programming and this has resulted in a shortage of skilled labour. Zhitong routinely advertises positions ranging from maintenance worker to programmer, paying between Rmb10,000 and Rmb15,000 a month compared with Rmb4,000 for unskilled workers.

This has led to a training boom across China's factory towns as migrant workers scramble to try to master robotics. Chuancai Securities, a Chinese broker, estimates the vocational market for training in robotics could grow to Rmb28bn by 2021, from Rmb7.5bn in 2016. In Dongguan, a 400-place training course offered by Yucai Vocational and Technology School sold out in a week. Pan Qingxiu, Yucai's principal, said many of his students were from factory production lines.

Lu Zide, a 29-year-old electrician, left an Rmb8,000 a month position for a course at Yucai. "I want to become a robotics engineer. This is where the future lies," he said.

But not everyone succeeds. Zhang Jiawei, a 25-year-old migrant worker from Sichuan, left a production line to enrol on a Rmb5,800 Yucai coding course but failed the English and mathematics components required to pass.

He is back on the production line but knows the higher salaries are with the robots.



This article was first published on Feb. 24 byFT Confidential Research.

 

[AndrewJin]

Interesting trend.

The time of capitalising on demographic dividend may never come in this world again.

 

[TaiShang]

This is important. If domestic supply does not meet the domestic demand, China will continue to rely on imports. Along with demand, domestic supply needs to grow, too.

Naturally, automation in manufacturing will chase out unskilled workforce while more R&D and engineering specialists are employed.

The chasing out will not be instant, hence, these years are critical to train the new generation specialists and canalize the unskilled via training into services as well as entrepreneurship.

 

[Bussard Ramjet]

Interesting trend.

The time of capitalising on demographic dividend may never come in this world again.

That has been said a thousand times in the past history.

If you want, I can search and find for you, exact same kind of articles published in 1970s, even in 1800s.

There was a whole movement in england in 1800s, to stop mechanization of agriculture and textile industry, called the luddite movement.

 

[MultaniGuy]

http://asia.nikkei.com/Features/FT-...turing-jobs-vanish-as-robots-take-over?page=2
March 3, 2017 9:30 am JST

FT Confidential Research
Chinese manufacturing jobs vanish as robots take over
Migrant workers vulnerable to companies chasing productivity gains through automation

Robots covered in plastic sheets are seen at a plant of Kuka Robotics in Shanghai.© Reuters

Rapidly growing appetite for industrial robots in China is set to hasten the decline in manufacturing jobs, according to the findings of an FTCR survey.

As part of a top-down push, local governments are subsidising companies to produce and purchase robots, while most companies reported productivity gains and forecast a reduced need for frontline workers.

This is not a zero-sum game: companies also cited a growing need for more skilled workers. This is creating demand for vocational skills and the robot revolution will be able to absorb only a minority of such workers.

The increasingly rapid adoption of industrial robots on Chinese production lines is set to hasten the fall in manufacturing employment. Among companies that intend to purchase robots in the coming 12 months, 72.7 per cent said this would mean job losses, according to an FT Confidential Research survey conducted across manufacturing centres in Guangdong in the south and Zhejiang on the east coast.

Industrial automation is seen as both an answer to China's falling working age population and a path to the kind of innovative, efficient economy that the leadership is trying to nurture. The government is aiming for a "robot density" of 150 units per 10,000 workers by 2020, up from 49 in 2015.

Predictably, this has triggered a funding frenzy among local governments, which may be keen to follow the leadership's line on industrial policy but also need little excuse to funnel state funds to companies in their region. But China's robot revolution is about more than unaccountable bureaucrats throwing subsidies at state firms.

By 2019, the International Federation of Robotics believes China will account for 40 per cent of the global market for industrial robots, from just over 12 per cent in 2010 (see chart).

Of the 30 companies surveyed by FTCR, 77.4 per cent said the costs associated with installing robots on production lines were recouped within three years. Among respondents, 41.9 per cent estimated they had spent more than Rmb10m ($1.5m) on robots for their factories, while 38.7 per cent said their purchases were subsidised by the government. In Zhejiang, for example, the provincial government offers subsidies of up to Rmb2.5m for companies to purchase robots.

The installation of robots helps companies address the pressures of rising wages. FTCR's survey of labour demand has found manufacturing wages increasing every month since it began in June 2012, although wage pressures are clearly easing (see chart).

But most companies surveyed also reported clear operational improvements following the installation of robots, with 96.8 per cent saying productivity increased - and by an average 27 per cent - while 77.4 per cent reported a drop in unit production costs.

Henghui Furniture in Dongguan, a manufacturing hub in Guangdong province, cut 40 of its 200 positions over the past two years after installing four robotic arms. Henghui general manager Lu Binxin says the robots have created payroll savings of Rmb1.9m a year, equivalent to the cost of the equipment. Profits rose more than 10 per cent last year, up from annual increases of 5-10 per cent before the robots were installed, Lu estimates.

Robots squeezing out frontline workers

Among companies surveyed, 74.2 per cent said the number of workers employed fell after robots were installed. Unskilled positions were hit hardest, with 80.6 per cent reporting a drop in the number of frontline workers employed (see chart).

The Guangdong branch of the Development Research Center, a State Council-level think-tank, estimates that robots reduced labour demand by 40,000 positions a year in Dongguan between 2014 and 2016.

Local governments are encouraging downsizing, at the expense of migrant workers, as part of the centre's push for a more efficient economy. In Zhejiang, the government plans to cut 500,000 manufacturing jobs per year, partly through industrial automation. A provincial government official acknowledged that its robot subsidy programme is partly intended to encourage unskilled migrant workers to return home.

Workers at Xinwei Plastic in the eastern city of Tiantai went on strike at the end of 2015 in response to plans to cut a third of the workforce after introducing five handling robots. Desperate to end the dispute and restart production, management negotiated early retirement packages for eight of the workers slated for redundancy, referred 20 to a neighbouring factory and bought out another 10.

"We underestimated the difficulties involved in replacing labour with robots," said Zhang Feng, Xinwei's general manager.

Central and local governments also see robots as an answer to China's demographic constraints. The country's working age population has already begun falling and is expected to continue dropping until 2050 (see chart). Manufacturing is still the biggest employer by sector in China, although the numbers employed in this sector have fallen by 0.79 per cent per year on average over the past three years.

The threat of robot deployment will continue to fuel labour disputes on the shop floor, although 60 per cent of companies surveyed said workers lost through automation were redeployed or retrained.

Wuhan-based Jointown Pharmaceutical Group, one of China's largest drug distributors, has cut the number of workers at its central warehouse from over 100 to just 13 since automating operations in 2012. Redundant staff have been sent to work for new Jointown branches across Hubei province.

"Robots have allowed us to store and deliver the same amount of goods with fewer people," said Zhang Qingsong, Jointown vice-president. "But business is growing so fast that we need more workers to perform those duties that robots can't."

A dozen workers lost their jobs in 2015 after Hubei-based Tianrui Electronic automated potting, which makes electronics resistant to shock or vibration. Instead of laying them off, Tianrui enrolled unemployed workers in a training programme and made them quality inspectors.

No zero-sum game

Such new demand in the labour market may help to absorb a minority of positions lost on production lines. Zhitong, a labour exchange in Dongguan, reported a threefold jump in robot-related job postings in 2016 from the previous year. Our survey found 80.6 per cent of companies reporting a drop in the number of frontline workers employed following the deployment of robots on production lines, but the same proportion said the number of technical staff either stayed the same or increased.

Robot-related positions require specialised knowledge of machinery and programming and this has resulted in a shortage of skilled labour. Zhitong routinely advertises positions ranging from maintenance worker to programmer, paying between Rmb10,000 and Rmb15,000 a month compared with Rmb4,000 for unskilled workers.

This has led to a training boom across China's factory towns as migrant workers scramble to try to master robotics. Chuancai Securities, a Chinese broker, estimates the vocational market for training in robotics could grow to Rmb28bn by 2021, from Rmb7.5bn in 2016. In Dongguan, a 400-place training course offered by Yucai Vocational and Technology School sold out in a week. Pan Qingxiu, Yucai's principal, said many of his students were from factory production lines.

Lu Zide, a 29-year-old electrician, left an Rmb8,000 a month position for a course at Yucai. "I want to become a robotics engineer. This is where the future lies," he said.

But not everyone succeeds. Zhang Jiawei, a 25-year-old migrant worker from Sichuan, left a production line to enrol on a Rmb5,800 Yucai coding course but failed the English and mathematics components required to pass.

He is back on the production line but knows the higher salaries are with the robots.



This article was first published on Feb. 24 byFT Confidential Research.

well if robots can take over, then people can do more productive activities and jobs.

 

[Bussard Ramjet]

This is important. If domestic supply does not meet the domestic demand, China will continue to rely on imports. Along with demand, domestic supply needs to grow, too.

More important is to have indigenous technology.

All those domestic robotic suppliers that you see, import critical parts from Japan.

Naturally, automation in manufacturing will chase out unskilled workforce while more R&D and engineering specialists are employed.

The chasing out will not be instant, hence, these years are critical to train the new generation specialists and canalize the unskilled via training into services as well as entrepreneurship.

China should not do the mistake of loosing the bottom.

Because once you start loosing the bottom, the whole supply chain begins shifting.

Take electronics industry for example.

China right now manufacturers and assembles a majority of everything.

But if this low end assembly and manufacturing shifts to South East Asia, then:

1. slowly critical and ancilliary components makers will also shift to that region
2. China will loose the bargaining power due to its size of demand.

well if robots can take over, then people can do more productive activities and jobs.

Exactly.

That's the way it has been since ever.

Almost all jobs that were done in 1000 AD, have already vanished. But new fields have emerged.

Rat style breeding is no longer needed.
The time of capitalising on demographic dividend may never come in this world again.

With this statement:

1. It is offensive. Rat style breeding is being used to insult other people.
2. It is incorrect. Most people don't do "rat style breeding". In India the TFR has already dropped to 2.2. That is 2.2 children per woman, not really many children per woman.

3. You can see the result of your advice in Japan: a stagnant, no-longer-extremely-innovative economy; with basically a globally decreasing profile.

4. Try to understand demographic dividend, not comment on what your definition of it is. Demographic Dividend is a phase in demographics, that boosts GDP, and has largely nothing to do with productivity.

 

[Bussard Ramjet]

Pls do not drag a failed example like india into such serious discussions on the future.

1. Failed is never permanent. China was internationally considered a huge failure until 1970s. Look where it is now.
2. Too much arrogance and deceit is always dangerous.
3. Your attitude towards India today, is very similar to the attitude that Japan had towards China for most of the time in the past century.

You on the history of Britain is very understanding, is worthy of the British Empire heir

I know actually a lot of history of lots of places of the world.

In your opinion, China is a failed state.
Take a look at your India, so far the toilet problem is not solved.

When did I say China is a "failed state"?

 

[Bussard Ramjet]

I have never quite understood why Pakistanis cheer and like derogatory comments made by Chinese regarding India's back wardness.


In all honesty, Pakistan is actually far behind India in almost all measures of human development.

India is higher in the HDI rankings.

India even has a higher life expectancy compared to Pakistan.

 

[MultaniGuy]

Congratulations to China!

 

[Beast]

That has been said a thousand times in the past history.

If you want, I can search and find for you, exact same kind of articles published in 1970s, even in 1800s.

There was a whole movement in england in 1800s, to stop mechanization of agriculture and textile industry, called the luddite movement.

Trying to use 1800s articles and 1970s article to talk about robot revolution is a joke!

Autonomous driving will be the decisive move to really usher into robotic age and mass horde of human intensive labour is over.

I know some country is doomed.

 

[TaiShang]

Robot industry key in China's manufacturing sector
By Qiang Wei (People's Daily) March 05, 2017

Microsoft founder Bill Gates’ recent calls for income tax on robots triggered a public debate on whether the workers will be threatened by robots or artificial intelligence. Realizing the dilemma years earlier, China has given its prescription by prioritizing the robot industry in manufacturing sector.

“Right now, the human worker who does, say, 50,000 dollars worth of work in a factory, that income is taxed . . . If a robot comes in to do the same thing, you’d think that we’d tax the robot at a similar level,” Gates said in a recent interview.

The world's wealthiest man suggested that tax be used as a way to fund other types of employment, such as retraining of workers replaced by robots.

Expert believed that the billionaire’s “odd idea” was, in essence, seeking for a balance between rising efficiency brought by automation and the care for human interests, especially for the vulnerable groups.

Li Xiaohua, a research fellow with the Institute of Industrial Economics under Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), at the same time pointed out that if a certain country imposes tax on robots, its manufacturing industry’s competence will be impeded because of slower rise of efficiency.

The export will then be affected by lower manufacturing efficiency, and more jobs will be slashed as a result, he added.

A new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation is emerging, so it’s not a wise move to tax on robots and artificial intelligence since such decision will slow down the intellectualization process, Li explained.

Both robots and artificial intelligence are core of new economy represented by smart manufacturing, he added.

The stagnancy of China's manufacturing industry, if persists, will cause loss to factories with low efficiency or financial deficit. Therefore, the industry, pressed with the waning demographic dividend and rising labor cost, is in urgent need to be transformed and upgraded.

The farsighted Chinese government has realized the challenges earlier. In the "Made in China 2025" plan rolled out by State Council in 2015, industry robot was defined as a key player to shift the country away from low-end manufacturing.

It also listed robot industry a direction of future development, in a hope to upgrade the manufacturing sector into a digitized, intelligent industry with large sizes and completed system.

In addition to the efforts, China introduced more policies to guarantee employment. The government is tasked with creating at least 50 million new urban jobs, and capping unemployment rate at 5 percent by 2020, in the guidelines on promoting employment during the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020) issued by the State Council at the end of January.