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Tag: Production

  • Coronavirus Could Impact iPhone Production

    Coronavirus Could Impact iPhone Production

    Following assurances from Foxconn that the coronavirus would not impact its production, it appears factory shutdowns are on the verge of doing just that and impacting iPhone output in the process, according to Reuters.

    The Chinese government has told companies to shut down production until at least February 10, and Foxconn has stopped “almost all” production as a result. According to Reuters, a “source told Reuters on Monday that Foxconn has so far seen a ‘fairly small impact’ from the outbreak as it was utilizing factories in countries including Vietnam, India and Mexico to fill the gap, adding that the company will be able to make up for the delay if factories work overtime after the ban.”

    The real concern is if production is stopped beyond February 10. If manufacturing remains stopped for weeks, a month or more, the impact to Foxconn’s output, and the iPhone specifically, would be “big.”

    This is just the latest indication that the coronavirus could have severe implications across various industries as governments and agencies around the world struggle to deal with the outbreak.

  • Foxconn FLA Audit: Inside Apple Production

    It costs Apple $250,000 to join the Fair Labor Association (FLA). ABC News’ Bill Weir was in China for the first ever FLA audit of Apple’s production floor inside Foxconn and it wasn’t surprising what he found. But, before I get into that, I think it’s interesting to mention that Apple had plans to partner with the FLA long before the ominous New York Times article was published featuring the so called, unsafe working conditions inside Foxconn.

    So what did Bill Weir show us inside Foxconn? Actually what we saw was what you would see if you took a tour of any modern production facility in the United States. The tour began with visitors putting on static-grounding devices (what Bill referred to as bunny suits) and entering a particulate controlled environment. Electronic components are extremely sensitive to the electric charges that our bodies generate as we go through our daily motions. The charges must be grounded or they will be sent through the electronic hardware of Apple devices and destroy them before they are even complete.

    Next we saw regular assembly line work taking place; people deburring metal cases, others cleaning screens, some snapping small components together, groups pushing carts, all kinds of activities that are common place in any production outfit. Judging from the video, I didn’t see anything unique or wildly out of place at the factory. This is not to say that abuses aren’t taking place, but abuses take place in every manufacturing facility, in China, The U.S., or elsewhere.

    What was unique was that many of the workers lived in nearby dorms. The employees report that the dorms are overcrowded, the pay is low, and the hours are long. By the way, most employees are working twelve hour shifts which feature two hours of breaks. This sound remarkably similar to production shifts in America. Workers at Foxconn are being compensated at a rate of two to three dollars per hour for regular shifts. In America, workers make between nine and fifteen dollars per hour for similar work. Aside from living at the dorms, everything sound fairly common.

    I think it is interesting that Apple fans have become so frantic over the working conditions in China when there are so many labor abuses right here in the United States. Tim Cook, Apple CEO claims that they keep tighter reins on safety than most others in the industry and I think we will find that those are not just shallow platitudes.

    FLA president, Auret van Heerden, made some commentary on what he first saw at Foxconn before the audits were started:

    “I was very surprised when I walked onto the floor at Foxconn, how tranquil it is compared with a garment factory. So the problems are not the intensity and burnout and pressure-cooker environment you have in a garment factory. It’s more a function of monotony, of boredom, of alienation perhaps.”

    So I agree that manufacturing can be boring and devoid of mental stimulation, it is a legitimate way to earn a living, and in China, it is probably one of few ways to guarantee a steady income. Is it a sweatshop? Yes, it probably is, but where else and how else can mass production take place? I think it would be great if we could pay Foxconn employees more, but are Apple consumers ready to have the costs passed on to them?

    I hope we find that the FLA’s audit is merely a formality to ensure future safety and that Foxconn is on the up and up with production safety, but my impression from what we have seen so far is that the FLA will find evidence of some abuse. What we should keep in mind is that China and Foxconn are growing at an unbelievably fast rate and that some issues will be ignored and overlooked. All and all, I think Apple, Foxconn, and China are headed in the right direction.

  • Online Video Is More Than The “Big DVR In The Sky”

    The future of online video is bright. A bit of an obvious statement there, but it’s the truth. But, for most it’s not being utilized to it’s full potential.

    For most, online video is just the “big DVR in the sky“, as CEO of Revision3, Jim Louderback, recently told us. People visit sites like Hulu, CBS, TV.com, etc. to play catchup, because that’s where you go when you’ve missed them the night before. Louderback went on to say:

    “There is this whole other part of online video where people are trying to create stuff that looks like television. Like comedies, dramas, news… but that’s done at less of a budget or more focused and targeted and the people doing it are able to be more experimental. There is a lot of experimentation that can happen with video when you break out of that structure… when you blow up that bottle that it’s contained in.”

    So is the experimentation with online video a good thing? In this case yes. Louderback says that we’re seeing more professional stuff going in, it’s easier to create, the tools and compression are getting better, and it gives talented people the ability to go out and cover things in their own way.

    During his interview with WebProNews at the Blogworld Expo, Louderback stated:

    “You couldn’t do this on TV, but you can do it here, build an audience and make it as long as it needs to be. You don’t have to hit a network timeout, you don’t have to hit a particular advertising break, if I’m boring… you cut me off and we’re done. I think that’s great because it allows the creativity of people before that had to be focused. They had to go to New York / L.A., you had to pay your dues, you had to sit within these rigid formats, and now you can do it in Lexington, Kentucky.”

    For the most part, network TV and online video are both getting better and better… but they’re both still trying to figure out what they want to be when they grow up and where they should intersect.

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