China’s appliance industry gets intelligentized  

海爾裁員上萬(wàn):機(jī)器人總動(dòng)員 自動(dòng)化挑戰(zhàn)"中國(guó)制造"

海爾首席執(zhí)行官?gòu)埲鹈絷P(guān)于“裁員”的言論亦引發(fā)外界廣泛關(guān)注。張瑞敏稱(chēng)，去年初海爾員工數(shù)量是8.6萬(wàn)人，年底減少至7萬(wàn)人，裁員比例為18%，今年預(yù)計(jì)再裁掉1萬(wàn)人。據(jù)了解，海爾減員的主要原因是制造業(yè)務(wù)的智能化減少了用工數(shù)量。[查看全文]

(ECNS) – Automated robots are reshaping China's appliance industry.

Haier, one of China's largest electronic appliance manufacturers, announced a layoff of 10,000 workers by the end of the year. Last year, the company removed 18 percent of its employees from the payroll.

The industry's automation is viewed by experts as the major reason for the massive layoffs – an increasing number of robots are performing the work once done by humans.

Many major appliance makers such as Gree, Midea and Galanz are reporting the same trend.

Midea said a total of 500 robots are employed in its air conditioner manufacturing. The move has helped save over 8 million yuan ($1.3 m) in 2013.

Using robots could also ease employees' work load and raise work efficiency. Galanz reported a 40 percent rise in production.

Gg-Robot President Zhang Xiaofei said surging labor costs and difficulties in finding the right workers have spurred the robot boom.

For example, Guangdong province underwent a short-term labor shortage earlier this year, with a gap of up to one million workers.

With an increasing number of industries getting automated, China has become the largest robot market in the world.