

How Apple iPads are Manufactured At Foxconn Factory in China [video] - websagir
http://www.techieapps.com/watch-how-apple-ipads-are-manufactured-at-foxconn-factory-in-china-video/
Reporter Rob Schmitz is the Bureau Chief of Marketplace in Shanghai. He is the person who discovered a large portion of Mike Daisey’s accounts about Apple’s Foxconn factories from China.
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ChrisNorstrom
I wish people would compare China today with what the USA was back when it was
developing. Let's not forget the pollution, child labor, crushed limbs, dead
horses in the streets of cities, raw sewage in the rivers, paving over an
entire rivers, environmentally devastating dust bowl, massive pollution, world
police attitude of the United States. China has Tibet, we have Native
Americans.

I've learned this: When you smell dog shit, before you go around blaming
others for stepping in it, look under your own foot, because chances are you
stepped in it too.

I just wish all countries didn't have to go through this route. If only there
was a way to skip the dirty development phase. Because after China, India, and
the Middle East comes Africa's time to rise. And Africa is the size of China,
US, India, and Europe combined. I don't think I want to be alive when dozens
of African countries hit the peak of their dirty development.

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hessenwolf
The rate of transition from sleeping in mudhuts to striking for maximum hours-
per-day and longer holidays has dramatically shrunk for China and India,
compared to Europe and the US. (it suddenly occurs to me that maximum hours-
per-day and holiday-time hasn't even been reached in the US yet)

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hessenwolf
I like that we all ignored my mistake in saying the rate had shrunk, when I
actually meant the time-to-transition has shrunk. :) Keeping focussed.

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lambada
I think this makes an interesting counter-point to the numerous articles that
claim bad working conditions.

I think really, this just goes to show how we need to remember the situation
within China, rather than comparing Foxconn to a 'Western' factory. Yes the
hours are long, and the pay is rather poor - but it is certainly one of the
best places to work within China.

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fredley
I'm still skeptical. What's shown in this video seems ok, but it's impossible
to know if this is representative or not. This is a tiny snapshot, and no
doubt has been carefully orchestrated by Foxconn. See also: tourists' videos
from North Korea.

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eitally
It's representative of all the big electronics manufacturers. It is not
representative of manufacturing in China as a whole, but it is wrong to
conflate the high tech electronics industry with, say, the building supplies,
food, or children's toys industries.

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mturmon
Or, paraphrasing my recollection of Tim Cook's remarks, "we're working to
extend our inspections of factory conditions deeper into the supply chain."
Probably if you chase down some of the components to the iPad you'd find much
worse conditions than shown here. Not to mention the bags of concrete and
hunks of rebar I get at Home Depot.

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krschultz
A quarter million workers is pretty unfathomable to me. I'm an engineer at a
company with over 6,000 manufacturing workers in one location and that seems
enormous.

The video mentioned $14 a day for the workers. In the US it's a lot closer to
$20 an hour, or $160 a day.

$146 a day difference, * 250,000 = $36.5 million a day difference in direct
labor costs. That turns into a couple billion dollars a year. It's staggering.

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woohoo
They offer free housing and food (plus the tax structure is totally different
etc.) so it isn't a direct comparison (but still a big difference).

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mturmon
Even the most minimal benefit structure in the US has got to outstrip free
housing and food at Chinese rates. FICA employer contributions, state
disability insurance, etc.

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woohoo
I'm sure it does. However don't assume housing is worth nothing. Right now
housing in Shenzhen is more expensive than Hong Kong.

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akamaka
There's so much missing from this video, most obviously the metal polishing
steps which saw the deadly explosion last year due to inadequate ventilation.

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huxley
Apparently the milling and polishing process is getting regular external
inspections:
[http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9223435/Apple_confirm...](http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9223435/Apple_confirms_aluminum_dust_caused_Chinese_factory_explosions)

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semanticist
The work and conditions shown in that video (although obviously not the pay)
don't seem too different to IBM's factory in Greenock, Scotland in the late
'90s/early '00s.

The scale was smaller, since it was pre-Lenovo ThinkPads and Netfinity
servers, not millions of iPads, but it had a surprisingly similar feel.

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rplnt
This seems like a propaganda video for Apple (not Foxconn because no one in
the west cares what Foxconn does). I'd like to believe it though...

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83457
This is actually done by public radio/media in the US. They have had a lot of
coverage of the factories recently--probably because a radio reported negative
information a couple months ago that turned out to be falsified.

