Hardware

Whenever I see people saying that China is evil on Reddit, I always think that they're just humans working really hard to survive and provide for their families. The political stuff is mostly about preventing China from competing in industries that developed countries compete in. It's a way to prevent China from moving up the value chain. Developed countries don't want China to produce chips, software, AI, electric cars, etc. They just want China to be the world's factory forever.

Elon Musk tried to automate every aspect of production of Tesla car, then had to admit that humans are irreplaceable. He gave up on all-aspect automation - there are far too many small components that tiny human hands are more adept to than robots. Actually, disassembling an iPhone a few times, I would agree, these are very intricate and fragile tiny pieces/cables everywhere.

Redesigning the iPhone specifically to be more easier for automated assembly would likely result in a worse product, and thus it wouldn't be worth it for Apple as that would lead to less sales. It's more profitable to just hire cheap labor and sell more product.

Apple has a fully automated recycling robot in the works, it functions but has issues and isn't big enough scale to handle all the recycling waste Apple has. There are videos on it, but as you would probably guess, destructive recycling is far easier than 'white glove' assembly. It breaks the screen, drills out the screws, freezes the back of the phone to weaken the batteries glue, etc. https://youtu.be/fUXiYecGZs8?si=2S5ic8M-M5cbGT8g

While complete autonomous assembly is absolutely doable, it just takes a ton of engineering and time, and with Apple producing new phones every year, that's just not worth it, when you can train a person to do the same task in minutes. It makes more sense for products that aren't going to change much over the years and can easily be nearly fully automated, like the production of pasta.

It already is automated. The supply chain and logistics are all in China because China spent money on infrastructure. You can’t plop a factory in the middle of nowhere without support structures, railroads, ports, trucking stations, etc.

Labor is still required even with automation. Local viability for cars works out sometimes due to high cost of shipping and numerous trade restrictions.

You should really read the article, the Chinese workers brought in to supervise the transition say as much:

Li said Chinese engineers sometimes talked about how they were working to make their own jobs obsolete: One day, Indians might get so good at making iPhones that Apple and other global brands could do without Chinese workers. Three managers said some Chinese employees aren’t willing teachers because they see their Indian colleagues as competition. But Li said that progress was inevitable. “If we didn’t come here, someone else would,” he said. “This is the tide of history. No one will be able to stop it.”

Foxconn will never achieve their chinese efficiency here because unlike IT industries manufacturing based ones have many unions which try to fight for workers right.

The next major move would be probably towards northern states which don't have strong unions

Most of the plant assembly workers are atleast graduate. Many upwards of 80% know English and they wont be able to work 12 hours straight, as many of their peers are just working 8 to 9 hours per day in other IT industriers.

Most of them would be from tier 10 colleges and wouldn't be working here if they themselves got jobs in the IT sector, so it would be unrealistic to expect the same level of salaries as IT sector

So again, the solution is to move towards northern states which are relatively less educated & have less IT sector penetration

The pay is really low compared to lucrative IT, so most of the womens working here aged 21 - 26 won't work here after their marriage. So you have constant pool is skilled employees leaving each year and their is a constant need to train new set of employees.

Solution is to provide childcare & increase wage in factories and retain workers or hire male employees

So unless makes a new strategy for their Indian factories instead of trying to replicate the same from china, these problems will remain the same

I think states can also help by providing cheaper electricity, lower property taxes etc

Even China struggles with turnover. Like, half of a factory simply not returning after the CNY holiday isn't unusual.

I don't think "iphone assembler" and "software engineer" are really hiring from the same talent pool, that doesn't make sense.

2. Most of the plant assembly workers are atleast graduate. Many upwards of 80% know English and they wont be able to work 12 hours straight, as many of their peers are just working 8 to 9 hours per day in other IT industriers.

India's population will surpass China's soon. They have enough people without a college education who will want to work in factories.

Looks like a motherboard, check. Looks like a motherboard, check....

…put 2 iphones on a shelf..one from CN and one from INDIA and I know which one I would pick. CN is so optimised for building these devices (inc supply chain proximity), I don’t want a phone from a struggling factory.

The assumption is that Apple would not sell any iPhone that does not meet quality standards. So any iPhone they put on the shelf should be equivalent in quality. The problem here seems to be efficiency, yield, speed, etc.