Exploring The Factories Where All Our Gadgets Are Made
from the take-a-listen dept
This week is the big Consumer Electronics Show -- and, like many in the tech field, I'm here in Las Vegas exploring the various gadgets that are coming out. Many (some might say most, though I'm not sure that's true) of the gadgets here are made in China. So it's interesting timing that the always excellent radio program This American Life chose this particular week to run its episode on what happens in the electronics factories in Shenzen, China. Most of the episode involves a rather gripping story from storyteller Mike Daisey (who first came to fame almost exactly a decade ago talking about his life working at Amazon.com). Daisey's latest one-man show is all about Apple and Steve Jobs -- and this segment was adapted from a part of that show. The second act of the show involves This American Life host Ira Glass, looking to fact check many of the claims that Daisey makes -- many of which do, in fact, seem to check out. Of course, the two biggest companies at the center of the story -- Apple and the infamous Foxconn -- refuse to take part. The whole thing is worth listening to, in part because Daisey really is a fantastic storyteller (something I didn't think was true a decade ago, but as I think he's gotten progressively better over the years).While I won't go into all of the details of the story, there were two separate points that I found especially interesting. The first was what maybe seemed like a minor aside in Daisey's monologue: that almost all the work done in these factories is done by hand. He noted that, in his imagination, if he ever really thought about these plants, he imagined them being like the robotic Japanese auto plants he'd seen videos about years ago -- only the robots would be smaller, since the gadgets are smaller than cars. But, the truth is that everything is done by hand -- and that's, in part, because labor is so ridiculously cheap in China. And then he notes that we always hear people who decry the fact that everything is mass produced by these machines, and clamor for handmade products. And he notes that, perhaps, we don't really want handmade products -- because all these gadgets really are handmade, and it's not a pleasant experience.
The second point, however, goes in a different direction. It comes during the "fact check" portion of the show, in which multiple observers -- including Paul Krugman and Nicholas Kristof -- note that, for as bad as the factories may seem relative to what we have today in the US, the conditions and opportunities are significantly better than where those workers came from. Furthermore, another commentator notes, over the last few years, conditions at these plants has been improving -- and it isn't necessarily because of pressure from companies or the government instituting any kind of labor reforms. It is, instead, because competition for workers has increased -- and turnover is massive: in some cases upwards of 20% per month. That's an insane level of turnover -- and a costly one. Even in a "sweatshop" type setting, the costs of replacing a worker can be high, and the end result is that these companies do have incentives to improve, and to offer a better deal and better conditions in factories. None of this is to excuse the dangerous working conditions (in some cases easily avoidable), the physical neglect of employees, or the occasional employment of under-age workers. But it does make you wonder what the "solution" to all of this would be. Daisey says the answer is labor standards -- and that may very well be a workable solution. But it might also mean that some of the workers, who start from the same place as those who were able to build themselves up from incredibly poor to a form of middle class, might never get that chance.
It's a situation where there certainly aren't easy answers. Personally, I think that if there were more transparency (and perhaps shows like this one can help), that could drive social pressure to improve the worst of the worst working conditions, as companies should be reasonably ashamed for abusing their employees'. And that level of transparency itself can come from social pressure. Indeed, while Apple and Foxconn refused to take part in the show, Apple (at least) has been continuously pressured to be more transparent about these things, and (as the episode notes) in some ways it does do a lot more than other companies -- though many would argue not nearly enough. In the end, hopefully pressure both from competitive forces for workers along with public pressure to stop horrible treatment can lead to a situation where the conditions in these factories really do significantly improve. And maybe, in the end, that actually does lead to more automation, and the miniaturized robotic automobile factories Daisey imagined. And then people can really complain about a lack of handmade goods. But, it might just be better for the employees themselves in the long run.
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Filed Under: china, factories, manufacturing, mike daisey
Companies: apple, foxconn
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Relevant link: http://www.techweekeurope.co.uk/news/foxconn-workers-threaten-mass-suicide-53817
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The Miniature "Auto" assembly line
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KISS KIM KIM
Keep It Simple Stupid
Keep It Modular
Keep It Manufacturable
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Re: The Miniature "Auto" assembly line
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The problem is if you need a human to put things together then you didn't plan for the manufacturing piece, and that is poor engineering.
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Re: The Miniature "Auto" assembly line
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That didn't stop the president of Foxconn from announcing that they were going to install 1,000,000 robots in their factories by the end of 2003.
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Just don't let the government interfere with commerce and everything will find its natural way.
One thing to note is that China is so massive in numbers that they can create their own self economy, when one part goes up the other goes down and each keep feeding itself.
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But by playing off the original suicides, they get a lot of press, didn't they?
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How dare they take advantage of all the good will and empathy of their most gracious employers.
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like everything, when it suits, so it seems, it suits!
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That's millions of additional workers buying homes and cars and food and clothing and appliances. Not to mention paying taxes.
Henry Ford got one thing right when he insisted that his workers be paid a living wage. Why? Because he wanted them to be able to afford to buy his cars.
US corporations shifting millions of jobs overseas was a brilliant short-term success... right up to the point where it left those people out of work and as such, unable to buy their products.
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Simply? No. You don't just built a plant somewhere. You need a workforce that can build the plant itself. You need a workforce you can train. You need materials. You need power. You need roads and ports and infrastructure.
Nor do you "simply" abandon a three-year-old billion-dollar electronics fab or assembly plant.
Besides, the standard of living is rising in China, Thailand, India, the Philippines... where are you going to go?
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFhbaMAjAA0&feature=related
I kept hearing his story as if Scott Thompson was saying it.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFhbaMAjAA0&feature=related
I kept hearing his story as if Scott Thompson was saying it.
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We Protested but no one cared except to beat on us for our long hair.Well you dickheads who picked on people like me are now screwed and so much of your life is now "Made In China".
I would just sit here and laugh but it is to sad to even contemplate any longer.
My Dad's Generation screwed all of us US Citizens for a Profit.
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If any part of an automated assembly line stops it also stops the rest of the line, there are no backups in a line, there is no way to make 2 lines, people saw this in the 80's and 90's and found out that the solution to that was to break down the production into smaller pieces and so the parts the broke the most could have backup stations, the line now could be dispersed around not only the factory floor but across the globe and the price to have a backup goes down as you don't need to mirror the entire line but only a piece of it, it also proves advantageous in finding smaller subcontractors that wouldn't be able to handle the entire process but can handle bits and pieces of it.
The Chinese are in the 80's in to Japan organizational production, long line of workers, giant companies being born, America saw that happen in the 50's and 60's before it fall in the 70's, every single country passed for that evolutionary phase.
Now I believe it is time for the "cooperative industry" to be born and revitalize the production capabilities of countries, with a global brain, but local capabilities of production.
Every single person in the world would work to make one thing better and use that for his local advantage, without needing to care what happens on other places, without feeling threatened by others overseas, it would mean he would become a partner in global development so it can benefit him in his local endeavors.
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Define "Hand Made"
Hand made is when a craftsman takes raw materials and creates a finished product. Parts are often not interchangeable and each finished product is a little different from the others.
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CES
Does not compute. You appear to be saying no one in the US, where we have labor standards, can do that.
I did - from welfare as a child to multimillionaire.
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