Should The Workers In The Clothing Industry Of The Pearl River Delta Be Replaced By Robots?

In the manufacturing workshop of Shunde Junan estas Clothing Co., Ltd., all the arms are arranged in neat order, and they are working in an orderly way. Fan Youbin, general manager of the company, introduced the company at the beginning of this year. Robot (double track automatic hanging system), after using the robot, the workshop production efficiency has increased by 30%-50%.

Although labor shortage is still in existence Pearl River Delta Everywhere is getting stronger and stronger, but more and more workers find that "robots are coming!"

Last August, Foxconn, the world's largest electronics manufacturer, announced that it plans to replace 1 million workers with more robots in China in three years. This is followed by Foxconn's "ten successive jumps" and a sharp rise in pay.

In recent years, one of the most painful words for entrepreneurs is "rising". Raw materials are on the rise, rents are rising, taxes and fees are rising, labor is also rising, and the owners of big and small businesses are racking their brains to deal with it. So more and more robots will enter the manufacturing industry. Robots will not ask for pay increases, robots can work 24 hours a day, robots will not leave their boss's cards to miss club, and robots will not jump out of their own buildings. Will robots replace manual labor as a major trend in manufacturing?

　　 The hottest robot

Germany's Hannover industrial exposition is known as the "barometer of world industrial development". A month ago, at the most influential industrial event in the world, several mobile machines attracted worldwide attention. This is the first collective appearance of Chinese robots in Hannover. These robots are not humanoid, or in boxes or arms. Even if we see robots, we may not recognize them.

May 19th is the open day of the Shenzhen advanced technology research institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The cute little Q robot and nbao robot have attracted children's eyes. Experts say it is rather narrow to think that robots are similar to human precision mechanical equipment. The scientific understanding is that, according to the pre-set procedure, the mechanical equipment that can complete the prescribed action or operation autonomously can be called "robot", so "robot" can present various appearances such as tracked, mechanical arm, or human shape.

Statistics show that robots began to enter the industry since the late 60s. At present, 60% of the world's robots are produced in Japan, especially high-end robots. In recent years, the application fields of industrial robots extend to the fields of electronic information industry, construction and mining. The electric robot can inspect the equipment of the substation independently and detect or remove ice on the online road. The industrial robot can undertake the assembly of the precision parts of the production line, and can replace the manual work of spraying, welding and assembling in the bad working environment. It can also be combined with the machine tools such as the digital controlled ultra precision milling machine and so on.

Experts predict that the average annual growth rate of industrial robots will reach 25% in the future. The annual growth rate of mobile robots for logistics and transportation will not be less than 20%. Expert analysis, robots will become a hot new field in the future market, and all countries in the world are taking the lead. At present, Japan intends to use robots to replace wage labourers in 2020 to occupy the price advantage.

At present, China's potential huge market demand has begun to emerge. Relevant data show that with the development of domestic manufacturing industry, especially the development of automobile and auto parts manufacturing industry, which is the main application area of industrial robots, the assembly of industrial robots will increase rapidly. No matter "robot arm" or a more high-end robot, it will greatly increase production efficiency after being put into use. Xie Gang, a doctoral supervisor at the school of information engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, said, "for example, in polishing jobs, after the robot is put into use, the yield can be increased from 87% to 93%."

The reporter also learned from the Hannover Exhibition China representative office that the series of robot products and equipment that China's own innovation has been widely applied in the fields of industrial high-end equipment, transportation, energy, special equipment and so on, has been exported to the United States, Canada, Korea, Russia, Mexico and other countries and regions in bulk, and has rewritten the history of Chinese robots being imported without export.

It can be said that Chinese enterprises have ushered in a new era of robots, whether from robots or robots.

　　 Efficiency of production

Fan Youbin, general manager of Shunde Junan estas apparel Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "esta"), Clothing hanging system It is a production unit or system developed on the basis of numerical control machinery, robotics, automated warehouse, automatic conveying and other automation equipment and computer technology projects. After a finished product is finished, it passes through about 17 processes, and completes it from start to finish. The system can shorten processing auxiliary time, improve production efficiency, reduce the floor area of semi-finished products, and ensure product quality. But it can be fully automated from mechanical processing. Because of the artificial sewing machine position, clothing is interrupted in the automation process, so its pipeline system needs manual participation. This technology was introduced into the mainland in 2008. Now it is used more in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, and is just beginning in the Pearl River Delta.

The biggest advantage of the hanging system is that all the information is passed through the computer, for example, which person is the person who processes it, how much he does a day, who does it quickly, who does it slowly, the computer will record the first time, and after debugging, the system will find the best balance point, so as to ensure the smooth flow.

This set of equipment has 33 seats per unit, and the price of each bit is 12 thousand yuan. Asta bought two equipment in advance. After several months of trial, the data is gratifying compared with other workshops, and the production efficiency is increased by at least 30%-50%. Using robots can achieve twice the result with half the effort.

In the past, the cowboy workshop gave people the impression that the blue ceiling was on the top, the black floor was down, and the middle line was the blue eyes of the pipelined workers against cowboy light. After the introduction of robots, the customer's eye shop is completely different. The clean and clean silvery white mechanical arm looks refreshing and refreshing. The use of fully automated equipment is "more bottled up for customers, and easier to place orders."

According to the data of Jing An Bureau of Shunde District, Foshan, about 20 enterprises are considering introducing technology innovation equipment including suspension system. Deputy mayor of Junan Town and Chen Youhuan, director of the Bureau of promotion, said that Jun'an enterprise has spontaneously formed an innovation trend and made exploration in industrial upgrading. The person in charge of the town also said that the government will subsidize innovative initiatives in the future.

In different industries, robots can be ten percent, and even dozens of times the efficiency of production is also possible. For example, in the ceramic industry, robots can not only throw tiles for tiles, but also can automatically sort and pack them. Foshan's new Pearl ceramics and other enterprises have "recruited" such robots, the most bitter and tiring work to the robot, and can guarantee the standardization of products.

Most of the robots today are represented by the appearance of the manipulator. They are like crab legs, some like lifts, some are repeating left turns, others are endless spinning outside, with different shapes, and they are doing whirlwind, smashing, hammering and all kinds of nameless movements. They will only be simple and repetitive movements, seemingly dull but efficient and accurate. After a certain period of running in and correcting, they can adapt to different jobs. They may appear in polishing, grinding, laser marking, welding, spraying and other jobs.

Compared with humans, they are more suitable for working in hazardous environments such as flammable, explosive and toxic. Compared with the 8 hour working system of the first line production workers, these robots can work 24 hours a day without interruption. Not only that, the robot will not ask for a raise, no food, no boss, no jumping off the floor. "People will have fun and unhappy time, which will affect the quality of products, but robots will not be affected by the mood, and the quality of products will be more assured." Labor costs continue to rise, and the cost of an industrial robot can be offset in 3 years. Many companies using robots say they will continue to increase their use of industrial robots.

All kinds of advantages show that robots are trying to take the place of human ambition. However, Terry Gou, who plans to use millions of robots and is developing robots, explains the role of robots in the manufacturing industry. In the future, robots will play the leading role in some workshops, but robots will be used to "assist" rather than "replace" human beings. {page_break}

　　 The introduction of robots requires caution.

As for the trend of technological innovation, some enterprises in Junan Town also expressed cautious optimism. The head of a medium-sized enterprise at Changxing Industrial Park, located on the same site, said that the hanging system is expensive, and some small businesses may lack motivation. In addition, orders are also needed to improve efficiency.

As Fan Youbin said, the current international market environment, the impact of this quarter, orders have been reduced than before, but next will be improved. Since its establishment, alstar has developed rapidly, and still needs a lot of labor. Although the company's salary and working environment is more advantageous than most of its counterparts, recruitment is still a difficult problem for them. To this end, Ai Da spent heavily to attract robots to work.

It is good to use robots, but bosses who are good at calculating abacus will not ignore the cost factors. The price of a robot varies by tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands or even hundreds of millions of dollars. Reporters have learned that many enterprises are cautious about introducing robots. "Now the market development trend is totally unpredictable. Our profits are so low that loan financing is so difficult that we have to buy raw materials and loans for a little money, and orders are not single. We can not afford to give workers a holiday. Whoever dares to spend hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars to buy a robot will come back. If we do not live there, it will be money, and there will be special maintenance. The risk is too great! "

Data from Junan denim garment Research Institute of Guangdong province showed that only 6 enterprises introduced this production system since 2009, and now only more than 10 sets of production lines are available, and 5 have been introduced in recent two years. Tian Lei, assistant dean of the Research Institute, said that all of these were introduced in order to improve efficiency and enhance competitiveness in the background of last year's economic downturn.

In addition, bosses need to rub their eyes in choosing robots. Germany, Japan and the United States are among the more developed countries in the world. The robots produced in these countries are sold all over the world and used in all walks of life. In recent years, China's robot industry has also developed rapidly, and domestic robots have also been widely used in various fields. So, what is the best robot in every country? How should we inspect and select the production link of our own enterprises?

Fan Youbin introduced his own robot purchase experience. "Before, it has been through a lot of market research and various aspects of demonstration. Germany, Japan, Switzerland and China have seen it. Finally, we bought Canadian robots, because they are the earliest ones in the world to do the hang up system, the highest professional degree, and the products of other countries are all single track, only they pioneered the development of double track. Although the homemade system is only half the price, we have chosen a more professional Canadian device. " It is reported that the other hanging systems of garment manufacturers are mostly purchasing foreign equipment.

Compared with those who are entangled in the problem of robot brand selection, others worry that their own industry is too demanding on manual and is not suitable for robots. A person in charge of the footwear manufacturers association of Guangdong told reporters that, like the shoemaking industry, each piece of leather is different, requiring people to act according to circumstances, demanding highly manual work, and the degree of intelligence of robots can not reach the level of widespread use in shoemaking.

　　 The scale of robot industry in Pearl River Delta is bigger and bigger.

The Shenzhen advanced technology research institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has recently led the establishment of the Shenzhen robot industry university research and research alliance. Fan Jianping, President of the Institute, said that robots and intelligent systems will become the main driving force for the next wave of development of China's manufacturing industry. According to the briefing, the robotics industry alliance currently established is the first Federation of industry, research and research in China. Among them, there are 36 first batch members, including many leading enterprises in various industries such as Tencent, HUAWEI and SKYWORTH.

Robots are used in the manufacturing industry, which started with the production demand of the automobile industry. At present, 60% of the industrial robots in the United States are used for automobile production, while the industrial robots used in the automotive industry also reach 37% of the total consumption. Because of its high accuracy and reliability, the robot can greatly improve the production efficiency and quality. The robot has entered a multifaceted application stage, including medical surgery and OEM manufacturing.

People in the industry have revealed to reporters that at present, every manufacturing sector in the mainland has at least one top enterprise using robots. Even the fast moving consumer goods and logistics industries are beginning to use robots.

Chinese Academy of Sciences Shenzhen Advanced Institute official said, a large number of labor-intensive enterprises have begun to put into robot operation, in addition to some cutting-edge technology, a large number of welding robots, painting robots and handling robots, in addition, assembly, cutting, polishing, glue robot is also very common in industry. Fan Jianping, President of the Institute of advanced technology, said that the cost of a screw robot is more than 10 thousand yuan. When it is put into use, it can be equivalent to the workload of 6 workers. Intelligent robots like screws and steel sheets have not been able to perform single tasks like those used before. The robots developed now can greatly improve productivity and quality.

The widespread use of robots will also play a significant role in promoting the equipment manufacturing industry. It will help enterprises save labor costs and increase production efficiency, and will help upgrade the Pearl River delta industry. Fan Jianping said that in recent years, the rapid development of the robotics industry has become the main driving force for the next wave of development in the manufacturing industry. At present, the scale of products related to robotics related information, home appliances, communications and equipment manufacturing in Shenzhen has reached about 300000000000 yuan, ranking first in the country. Especially since last year, the phenomenon of rising wages and labor shortage has forced enterprises to take the initiative to upgrade, which has also promoted the development of the robot industry. Last year, the order of many robot enterprises increased by more than 50%. This year, orders for some enterprises have exceeded one year last year.

Fan Youbin also said that the introduction of robots is not to reduce labor. Instead of recruiting more workers, three robots will be introduced this year. Each robot needs to be equipped with corresponding workers and management teams. To make robots the most effective, a scientific management team is a necessary configuration. He makes an analogy, like a highway. If there is no suitable sign, route design and the fastest solution speed after an accident, then the highway may be more congested than the ordinary highway. Similarly, robots require high management personnel configuration, otherwise unreasonable configuration will only cause waste of high-tech resources.

　　 Robot changes destiny

The Pearl River Delta was once the world's foundry factory without controversy. In recent years, it has been replaced by Southeast Asian countries. From electronic products to clothing, footwear and toys, it has been at the lowest end of the industrial chain, and the profits of foundries are getting lower and lower, from 20% to 10%, to 5% or even 2% today. Working hard all the year round has become a portrayal of many foundry enterprises.

Local governments are also trying to change the image of the world factory in the Pearl River Delta, pushing the headquarters economy, upgrading and transformation, and increasing the pressure of enterprise transformation. At the same time, facing the difficulty of recruitment and frequent wage increase, can the use of robots change the current plight of OEM enterprises?

A few years ago, when a Guangdong boss went to Japan Motor Company for further education, he was stunned by the dense robot in the workshop. "A production line is actually operated by 26 robots. The production line only needs 1 workers to deliver raw materials to a fixed position, and then the robot hand will automatically select materials and produce them." At that time, he longed for the Chinese factory to become so modernized.

Now his dream is coming true. Its auto parts manufacturers began to launch the "robot hand" on a large scale two years ago. The biggest advantage that "machine hand" brings to enterprises is to improve efficiency and reduce labor costs. Taking the assembly of valves on a common assembly line as an example, 8 workers are required for two shifts per day, with an average of more than 8000 valves assembled each day. The company can purchase 8 pieces of automatic assembly machine at the price of about 600000 yuan per unit. The cost of labor saved only saves less than two years.

"The annual sales volume of the company is increasing at a rate of 20%. In 2009, the sales volume was 1 billion 500 million yuan, and it is expected to exceed 2 billion 200 million yuan in 2014. The boss calculated an account: Although the company is constantly on the line, but according to the company's plan, 3 years later, 70% of the production line will be completed automation transformation, and the production workshop does not need to increase workers in the future.

Instead of manual labor, robots have greatly improved the quality of products. "An assembly line produces tens of thousands of auto parts. Even if a defective product flows into the market, it will cause fierce complaints and cast a shadow over the brand of the enterprise. There are few defective products produced by "machine hand".

Fan Youbin believes that advanced countries in Europe and the United States have long started using robots because their labor costs are higher than ours. Now China's development has come to this stage. Many labor-intensive enterprises have moved to factories in Southeast Asia, such as Laos and Vietnam, which are much cheaper in terms of labor cost to reduce costs. If domestic enterprises want to compete with Southeast Asian countries, they can only rely on equipment superiority to reduce their costs, and compete with high technology and cheap labor. This is also a road that western developed countries have gone through. He predicted that robots will enter the manufacturing industry and become a major trend.

Li Shaokui, chairman of Foshan Economic Association and chairman of Foshan Xin Li Business Management Consultancy Co., Ltd., Mr. Li Shaokui, rooted in the Pearl River Delta for a long time. In his view, in the 60s of last century, the western developed countries had gone through third waves of industrialization. Highly automated machines and equipment had brought "few factories" or even "no factories". At present, the Pearl River Delta is redeveloping the old road of developed countries, which means that the post industrial era is coming.

The opposite view is that if robots can replace human beings, the developed countries in Europe and the United States do not need to shift the manufacturing industry. And the replacement of electronic products such as electronic products is faster and faster, more and more personalized, and more and more simple machines and repetitive jobs are suitable for robots. This shows that robots can reduce costs instead of manual labor, but they can not solve the essence and fate of pure foundry enterprises.

At the same time, some people expressed concern that the "machine revolution" will inevitably lead to a reduction in demand for workers. Will this bring workers' "unemployment tide"?

Some experts say that on the one hand, most of the machines replaced by simple labor are the most scarce part of the labour market in the Pearl River Delta. Therefore, it will not only bring unemployment but also solve the problem of insufficient labor supply in some areas. "Robots bear some repetitive and simple tasks. After being liberated, manpower can be put into more creative work such as service, research and development. " Once robots are put into production lines on a large scale, for example, Foxconn is trying to retrain some of the employees who have been replaced, so that they can regain operation, maintain robot jobs, or enter new jobs that accompany robots. On the other hand, cultural, creative, hotel, catering and other service industries also need to absorb a large number of labor force. The government can guide workers to move to the service industry.