Why Your iPhone Was Made in China
Apple executives say that going overseas, at this point, is their only option. One former executive described how the company relied upon a Chinese factory to revamp iPhone manufacturing just weeks before the device was due on shelves. Apple had redesigned the iPhone’s screen at the last minute, forcing an assembly line overhaul. New screens began arriving at the plant near midnight.
A foreman immediately roused 8,000 workers inside the company’s dormitories, according to the executive. Each employee was given a biscuit and a cup of tea, guided to a workstation and within half an hour started a 12-hour shift fitting glass screens into beveled frames. Within 96 hours, the plant was producing over 10,000 iPhones a day.
“The speed and flexibility is breathtaking,” the executive said. “There’s no American plant that can match that.”
[...]
Companies and other economists say that notion is naïve. Though Americans are among the most educated workers in the world, the nation has stopped training enough people in the mid-level skills that factories need, executives say.
Though Americans are among the most educated workers in the world, the nation has stopped training enough people in the mid-level skills that factories need, executives say.
I work in EMS aka we make other people’s stuff.
Can we get everyone in a plant to work in one hour? No. But we’re flexible, accommodating and produce a superior quality product in ways that customers like and appreciate. Proof: we’re in business and profitable, over 8,000 employees in Asia, NA and Europe.
We’re able to find the people we need, and we’re profitable.
One possible nuance - Apple makes consumer stuff. We don’t even try to compete there - margins are too thin for an NA company.
But we can and do certainly build stuff here - that we can’t is a damnable myth.
Posted by Brian Dunbar on January 22, 2012 at 2223 hrs
OK, the speed was part of it, but that’s only an available option because the factory houses their workers on site (no doubt in hellish dorms) and they “paid” them an extra biscuit and cup of tea.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 23, 2012 at 0547 hrs
No doubt getting people out of their factory dormitories to work in one hour and compensating them with a biscuit and cup of tea is in compliance with their collectively bargained union contract.
I stand with Gov. Walker but it sounds like these indentured servants might benefit from some representation.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 23, 2012 at 0612 hrs
You might find this interesting.
Among the billionaires at the vanguard of global capital, Terry Gou of Hon Hai (also known as Foxconn) deserves special recognition for his honesty. “Hon Hai has a workforce of over one million worldwide and as human beings are also animals, to manage one million animals gives me a headache,” said the chairman. His company has also begun building “an empire of robots” to replace a whining workforce.
The manufacturing processes considered acceptable in China are literally destroying people.
There’s a group that’s talking about hexane. N-hexane is an iPhone screen cleaner. It’s great because it evaporates a little bit faster than alcohol does, which means you can run the production line even faster and try to keep up with the quotas. The problem is that n-hexane is a potent neurotoxin, and all these people have been exposed. Their hands shake uncontrollably. Most of them can’t even pick up a glass.
I talk to people whose joints in their hands have disintegrated from working on the line, doing the same motion hundreds and hundreds of thousands of times. It’s like carpal tunnel on a scale we can scarcely imagine. And you need to know that this is eminently avoidable. If these people were rotated monthly on their jobs, this would not happen.
But that would require someone to care. That would require someone at Foxconn and the other suppliers to care. That would require someone at Apple and Dell and the other customers to care. Currently no one in the ecosystem cares enough to even enforce that. And so when you start working at 15 or 16, by the time you are 26, 27, your hands are ruined. And when they are truly ruined, once they will not do anything further, you know what we do with a defective part in a machine that makes machine. We throw it away.
How’s that iPhone working out for you now?
Posted by Phil Scarr on January 23, 2012 at 0744 hrs
Modern day slavery in the communist workers paradise. No, I own no Apple products. I’d like to find out how many others do this. Does Casio?
Posted by Billiam on January 23, 2012 at 0837 hrs
If the manufacturer is compliant with all Chinese laws why is the burden placed upon Apple. The actual physical device is built in China but what about all the jobs here stateside this product has created ? You cant have it both ways, if you find it all so heart breaking then dont purchase or use a device something the occupy peoples could not comprehend.
We are all guilty we all want the latest and greatest electronics and we want it at the best price.
Speaking of dormitories… Right now in North Dakota this has been working well to house the mass influx of new personal to the area. Are all dorms hellish? or just the ones in China ? I bet when 1st shift rolls out of bed in North Dakota they are given coffee. Somehow the entire China , tea, biscuit, thing , spins it all like a slave death camp.
Face reality like it or not we are a global marketplace.Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 23, 2012 at 0846 hrs
I think the key word here is “revamp.” They’re vague on details, but it sounds like Apple wanted a temendous amount of hand rework done, and they wanted it done quickly.
And I don’t doubt that a Chinese factory would do that better than an American one, simply because there’s a huge amount of low-cost labor available and it doesn’t cost much to use huge amounts of it.In short, if the product were made here the rewoork would have been much more expensive and would have taken longer.
BUT, most electronics assembly is not rework, and arguably something that’s been released for mass production should not require that sort of rework.
Overall, most electronics assembly is highly automated no matter where its done. The assembly process typically accounts for less than 20% of the final cost of goods if it’s done here.
One thing to keep in mind is that practically no “manufacturer” actually builds their electronic devices in their own plants anymore. Even if Apple decided to manufacture here, it would not be in a building that said “Apple” on it. Electronics manufacturing- here or elsewhere- is done by contract manufacturers.
Contract manufacturers are experts in manufacturing and in sourcing electronic components. They can almost always make something better, faster, and for less than anyone else. Somehow I suspect that the NY Times reporter is not aware that pretty much the entire electronics industry has switched to contract manufacturing.
The bottom line is, I think Apple could make iPhones here if wished to. It would cost more, but not all that much more. They would have to be more careful to avoid labor-intensive assembly and rework in their product designs. But I expect the overall quality would be better.
BTW, here’s an example of an electronics contract manufacturer in Wisconsin: www.uei.com
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 23, 2012 at 0849 hrs
Sorry, the URL is:
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 23, 2012 at 0901 hrs
I bet when 1st shift rolls out of bed in North Dakota they are given coffee. Somehow the entire China , tea, biscuit, thing , spins it all like a slave death camp.
Leaving physical accommodations aside, I imagine the guys in dorms in ND won’t be rousted out of bed off shift to grind away at a work bench for twelve hours.
Being made to work extended hours off-shift: that’s the diff that turns a dormitory into a really unpleasant place to live.
How’s that iPhone working out for you now? hmmm
Pretty good, thanks.
Phil do you avoid all products that are produced in sub-optimal working conditions, or by un-ethical firms? Or just Apple because they’re the cause-de-jour?
Posted by Brian Dunbar on January 23, 2012 at 1019 hrs
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/454/mr-daisey-and-the-apple-factory
Listen to this podcast. I have read to make the Iphone, Ipad in America it would cost $40 more per product. I would be willing to pay if an American design was made in America. If you own a computer, laptop, or cell phone don’t kid yourself, it was made in China!
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 23, 2012 at 1416 hrs
I’m sure the conditions at Foxconn mirror those in North Dakota.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 24, 2012 at 0622 hrs
I am also sure one foreman did not rouse all 8,000 employees on his own. Did he also boil the water for all the tea and make all the biscuits from scratch.We dont need Chinese production methods we just need this particular foreman.
If the numbers are correct thats only 1.25 phones per day per employee, that not a mind blowing figure.The glass for the phones was made here in USA, and no doubt the technology and other components, not to mention the jobs created in use of the product after manufacturing
I would rather design the flow and drainage of a sewer ditch then stand in knee deep slop and do the actual digging. I have done both and highly encourage everyone to sub out the grunt work whenever possible.Regardless of your opinion many things just dont click in this article.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 24, 2012 at 1006 hrs
The glass for the phones was made here in USA,
Incorrect. The glass was made _by_ Corning at a plant _in_ China.
I have done both and highly encourage everyone to sub out the grunt work whenever possible.
Agreed. But.
* Not everyone wants to design a drainage ditch, or is capable of doing so. These people need something to do: we might have more grunts than we have grunt work. Welfare for life? Teach them Chinese and encourage them to move to Hangzhou?
* The guys that do grunt work have effects on the economy: they buy stuff, which makes more work for other guys who can buy stuff ... subtract them from the labor pool and their follow-on affects go away too.
Posted by Brian Dunbar on January 24, 2012 at 1041 hrs
Link to an article by Business Insider on this very topic
http://www.linkedin.com/news?actionBar=&articleID=5566799143352930322&ids=0OczcMcPAOdjcPd34VejsSdzkRb38QdzgVcj4Pc3cVc30UcjsSdjkIe3wRd3wTdPkTe30OdjsQdjoRdiMUdPkSdPcQd3oOdjgOdPwRdzkR&aag=true&freq=weekly&trk=eml-tod2-b-ttl-3&ut=2Hu0K_vDM6BR41Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 24, 2012 at 2017 hrs
Total Entries: 20001
Total Comments: 134057
Most Recent Entry: 05/25/2012 03:10 pm
Most Recent Comment on: 05/25/2012 02:38 pm
Total Members: 9751
Total Logged in members: 0
Total guests: 111
Total anonymous users: 3
Most Recent Visitor on: 05/25/2012 04:24 pm
The most visitors ever was 538 on 12/01/2007 02:11 pm
Protected and licensed under a Creative Commons License (some rights reserved).