Toyota to Employ Advanced Robots

olegalexandrov writes "Toyota Motor will introduce robots which can work as well or better than humans at all 12 of its factories in Japan to cut costs and deal with a looming labor shortage. The robots would be able to carry out multiple tasks simultaneously with their two arms, achieving efficiency unseen in human workers and matching the cheap wages of Chinese laborers, a report said on Thursday." The Motley Fool has a humorous take, and Toyota emphasizes that goodlife, err, humans will continue to have a place in Toyota factories.

Welcome!

[anakin357]

I for one, welcome our new two-armed manufacturing robotic friends.

All kidding aside, technological advancements not only displace jobs, but also create them as well. There is a small difference between paying 20 robotics engineers to develop, create, and maintain the robots exorbitant salaries as much as hiring 150 "guys off the street" to do the same stuff.

Yes, after the initial development, the costs go down, but not a whole lot. Someone needs to make sure the robots keep doing their jobs.

From TFA:
Japan has so far rejected calls to open up to large numbers of unskilled immigrants, fearing the effects on the country's social framework.

So instead of using "outsourced" labor, they remove jobs by having robots do them.... almost as bad.

Strange New War?

[bryan1945]

Does anyone get the feeling that China may be the cause of a new, strange war? Not shooting, but economic, robotic, worker-ethic, or something even stranger?

We already hear complaints that everything is "Made in China" (or Taiwan, but we shall ignore for this discussion). Ok, shoes, T-shirts, etc.,... but now cars?!?

Can China's cheap labor outdo even "Western Civilization's" tech by just throwing enough bodies at it? Toyota is scared that their non-smart bots are non-competitive against China's workforce? What next, Oracle is competing against a billion data enterers? (OK, a bit jokey).\

It just seems that a lot of stuff points back to China as a problem for many countries. [Put on tin foil hat now]

I am just wondering if there will be in the near future (or whatever future in the US's case; and yes I am American) some kind of trade war, social war (China being bad on human rights), maybe terroristic war by who knows who, or just straight out weirdness because China is becoming so powerfull by utilizing a labor method outgrown by pretty much every other world power a long time ago (ie, something akin to slavery- I know this is a powerful and loaded term, and correct, but I could not think of another suitable term that would describe some of the conditions that China lives under.

Sorry for rambling so much.

Once again...

[bogaboga]

...Another potential first from an Asian company! Where has all the American innovation gone? For those ganging to mod me down, GM (of USA) continues to lose market share in the US while Japanese companies seem to be flourishing. In Canada, it is even worse for GM even after introducing 5 new models, more than any other company.

Another bit: For Canada, though being one of the so called G7, only the Russian built Antonov-124 http://dptscargo.homestead.com/antonov124.html [homestead.com] could transport the enormous amounts of aid to the tsunami victims. The Canadians have nothing to rival this giant plane! We Americans are not any better because our even smaller cargo planes are more expensive to operate and require better and longer runways, and cannot self-handle! Airport workers gaped as they had never seen a plane as big with all the independence it has. I was also amazed.

I leased the new Toyota Sienna, and you know what, it's a pleasure to drive not to mention the quiet engine. When I look arround my house, almost everything I use daily is Asian made...from the cell phone to the rice cooker.

As Americans, we must wake up before it's too late.

This will be a new industrial revolution

[nyri]

The non-specialized robot worker will usher new era upon mankind. The think is, in couple of decades we are running out of work for people without college decree. The robots will remove manufacturing jobs and ever expanding self-service industry will cut out jobs from the service sector. This means that societies must adopt to new situation as the current social agreement is based on the assumption that there is jobs for everyone.

It's true that these innovations and changes will create new jobs, but the new jobs are created for the educated people not for the people whose jobs are disappearing.

A world where there are no jobs for everyone isn't necessarily a bad thing, if societies are rearranged so that a decent living is provided for everyone and people start defining themselves not by their profession but by some other attributes.

Re:What?!?!

[pchan-]

North American workers simply aren't willing to view themselves as cheap labour to pick up the slack from more expensive places to do manufacturing.

Not true. Several Japanese automobile manufacturers assemble in the U.S. a large number of the cars they sell in North America. Toyota does it (my 4runner was built in their plant in Kentucky). Honda and Nissan do it. However, they do NOT do it in Michigan, due to the low quality of the workforce there, and the strength of the UAW in that state. Car stickers (at least in California) are required to state what country the car was assembled in, as well as what country the majority of the parts were manufactured in (usually Japan).

Re:Strange New War?

[LMCBoy]

Ah, the Scapegoat. Is there any figure more welcome to the mind of the citizen who sees his country going down the crapper?

The reality is that we've won China over to our vision of global capitalism. No fair crying "foul" if they kick our ass at our own game.

Yes, there are some pretty disturbing human rights/social justice issues over there. But today's China is radically different from the China of just 5 years ago. In my opinion, their expanding middle class will eventually cross a threshhold where the current political structure will become unsustainable, and then their laws will rapidly catch up with their booming economic progress. Well, maybe I'm an optimist, but that's how I see it.

Re:Once again...

[antifoidulus]

But by using your same logic I could say that the Americans are more innovative and resourceful than the Japanese. Which country has 2 rovers currently on Mars that have by far exceeded all expectations? The EUs robot crashed in the atmosphere, Japan's didn't even come close to hitting Mars. You have some good points, but your examples are too narrow.
Americans and Japanese innovate in different ways. It's pretty much always been that way since Japan became an economic power after the occupation. Americans tend to neglect a lot of the little innovations like this that can make a big economic impact, but tend to excel in huge undertakings(Man on the Moon, the Internet etc). Japan seems to be the exact opposite. Their space programs have been an abysmal failure, and yet their consumer level technology is unrivaled. Interesting to see how different cultures react to similiar circumstances.

Re:What?!?!

[Anonymous Coward]

As a contractor who has worked for GM, Ford and Nissan. Quality of automobiles is more of a function of cost, not quality of workforce. Because Toyota and Honda have processes that are more cost efficient and lower overhead and labor costs, they are able to spend more money on higher quality components. That results in higher overall vehicle quality at the same price point.

Japan has too many people

[Anonymous Coward]

While the demographic crisis is a problem, it's one that must be faced. Despite being smaller than California, Japan has over 127 million people, making it one of the top 10 largest countries in the world by population, with a population near that of Russia. If the USA had the same population density as Japan, its population would be 3.1 billion, half that of the entire world or over 10X the current approximately 295 million.

Re:What?!?!

[gstoddart]

Not true. Several Japanese automobile manufacturers assemble in the U.S. a large number of the cars they sell in North America. Toyota does it (my 4runner was built in their plant in Kentucky). Honda and Nissan do it.

Yep. They do manufacture there. I'm too lazy to google at this point, but I'm fairly sure that's to comply with domestic labour tarriffs and duties. I'm prety sure here in Canada it closes a loophole for domestic production numbers. I've certainly grown up knowing this is why -- if a company manufactures in Canada they get taxed at a lower rate.

I'd be willing to bet the US production numbers are aimed at this type of domestic job-protection initiative -- think congressmen protecting their constituent's employment.

The grand-parent I was repsonding to was asking why not out/in source to Detroit for cost savings. From a Japanese manufacturer's POV, having more cars made in the US doesn't improve their bottom line. I'm inclined to think North American manufacturing is more expensive that their best cost given the other markets they have access to. Robots being but one example.

The fact of the matter is, you'd have to show me some pretty overwhelming numbers before I would believe that North American labour rates are competitive with those in Asia.

Cheers

Re:looming

[ambrosine10]

have horrible weather and natural disasters

The weather in Japan is nice enough. The winters are much more comfortable than the east coast of the US.

Natural disasters? What kind of crack are you smoking? The US has hurricanes and tornadoes and earthquakes, you know. I've lived in Japan for most of my life and I haven't seen any natural disasters that affected me personally.

Japan is expensive, but the pay is much higher to compensate. Guest workers in Japan are among the "richest" in terms of money they have to send home.