Chinese carmakers are shifting towards automated assembly plants as robots are forecast to boost the workforce.
As employee wages, worker protests and inflation continue to rise in China, plant owners in the world’s largest auto market are forecast to invest in more and more robots. At Great Wall Motor Co’s plant in the northern city of Baoding, the automated factory floor is already a far cry from the over-staffed production lines elsewhere in China.
Great Wall has already invested one billion yuan ($161 million) in mechanising its four plants with 1,200 robots and predicts that “savings from reduced worker wages” will have completely paid for the upgrades within three years. The average cost of a Swiss-made factory-floor robot is 311,000 ($49,700).
Since investing in the new robots, the number of welders at Great Wall has plunged from 1,300 to around 400. Average wages of $450 a month have been rising at around 20% per year which, coupled with a steep increase in worker protests, have sped up the automation trend. As well reducing human costs, the new robots have very little downtime and contribute to a rise in efficiency and shorter product cycles.