China is expected to become an automation center, which negates many assumptions about robots and the economy.

Economists generally believe that automation aims to reduce labor costs, which can give rise to advanced economic systems, protect manufacturing from the threat of relocating overseas, and may even lead to the return of manufacturing. The motivation for popularizing automation has never disappeared. However, robots will gradually replace jobs in developing countries, and potential employment opportunities in cutting-edge markets in Asia, Africa, and Latin America are decreasing.

In China, the support point of economic strength has fallen behind the trend. Labor costs have significantly increased, while countries with advanced economic systems such as the United States have been less affected. At first, China relied on its labor cost advantage to bring in numerous manufacturing jobs, but new trends have already disrupted this economic system. The new robot technology is cheaper and easier to use than ever before.

In addition, regardless of where the factory is located, many of China's fastest-growing manufacturing industries such as automobile manufacturing tend to rely on automation technology. Some manufacturing jobs can only use robots, such as precision work in electronic product factories.

Robotdensity

Adams Nager said, "We believe that Chinese people are good at manufacturing cheap small goods, but that's not their focus." As an economic research analyst at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation in the United States, he believes that China plans to shift its focus from low-end labor-intensive industries such as clothing and footwear to capital intensive industries such as steel and electronics, and automation technology is a booster for these industries.

From this perspective, the transformation of China's manufacturing industry is no different from that of other countries in the world.

However, what is happening in China heralds a major change. Some economists believe that industrialization has brought about massive employment growth, which has quickly propelled many countries into the ranks of wealthy nations, and China may become one of the last such countries. If this trend of automation continues, it means that the growth rate of employment will slow down, but this phenomenon has not yet occurred in China.

The Robotics Federation estimates that the sales of industrial robots in 2014 were approximately 225000 units, an increase of 27% compared to 2013. The sales of industrial robots have increased in all major markets, with the Asian market growing by more than half. China is particularly dazzling, with sales of approximately 56000 industrial robots in 2014.

The Robotics Federation stated that China's "industrial robot density" is relatively low, which is one of the reasons for the sustained growth in sales. The robot density in China (the number of robots used per 10000 workers) is 30.

Henrik Christensen, director of the Robotics Center at Georgia Institute of Technology, stated that China is rapidly growing in the field of robotics. In order to meet the market demand for new robots, the largest domestic companies have been building factories one after another.

Terry Hannon, strategy officer at Adept Technology, a US robot manufacturer, stated that 400 Chinese robot manufacturers attended a Chinese trade exhibition in 2014. In this transformation, Foxconn plans to build and install thousands of robots to assemble iPhones and other products.

herd effect

In fact, regardless of using products made in ChinaRobotThe rapid popularization of industrial robots in China is also related to self-esteem. Steven Wyatt, Marketing and Sales Director at Swiss robot manufacturer ABB Robotics, said, "When Chinese people export goods, they are often hindered by product quality. Now they will say, 'The robots we use are the same as Western European and North American companies.'

This is also one of the reasons why the Chinese government is promoting this change. In 2013, the Chinese government announced that by 2020, China would have at least 3 competitive robotics companies and 8 to 10 supporting industrial clusters, with domestic robots accounting for about 45% of the total, and a robot density of over 100.

Some analysts believe that this top-down strategy can create a "herd effect" and result in erroneous spending. Gan Jie, a professor at Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business and director of DJI, said, "If you invest funds in the wrong company, you will exclude the most innovative company. ”

From the current perspective, robots do not seem to have a significant impact on the Chinese job market. In 2014, the average wage increase in Chinese cities exceeded 10%, but this year China still plans to create at least 10 million new jobs.

Chinese business owners believe that it is becoming increasingly difficult for them to find young people willing to work on boring assembly lines, which is the main reason for their adoption of robots. Some electronic product manufacturers have stated that they need to cope with a monthly staff turnover rate of up to 20%.

Although some factories have moved out of China, the employment environment in China still maintains a good trend. Perhaps other developing countries have a better understanding of this.

Chen Zhengxiao, from Zhejiang Rui'an Hard Alloy Tools, stated that labor costs are not the reason why companies are adopting more robots. Artificially manufactured products can have quality issues and precision cannot be guaranteed. Robots have faster manufacturing speeds