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Robotics Businesses

American Robots Lose Jobs To Asian Robots as Adidas Shifts Manufacturing (nypost.com) 85

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
Adidas plans to close high-tech "robot" factories in Germany and the United States that it launched to bring production closer to customers, saying Monday that deploying some of the technology in Asia would be "more economic and flexible." Reuters: The Adidas factories were part of a drive to meet demand for faster delivery of new styles to its major markets and to counter rising wages in Asia and higher shipping costs. It originally planned a global network of similar factories. The German sportswear company did not give details on why it was closing the facilities, which have proved expensive and where the technology has been difficult to extend to different products. Martin Shankland, Adidas' head of global operations, said the factories had helped the company improve its expertise in innovative manufacturing, but it aimed to apply what it had learned with its suppliers.
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American Robots Lose Jobs To Asian Robots as Adidas Shifts Manufacturing More

American Robots Lose Jobs To Asian Robots as Adidas Shifts Manufacturing

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  • We have to fight for American robots! (Score:5, Funny)

    by WillAffleckUW ( 858324 ) on Tuesday November 12, 2019 @01:19PM (#59407380) Homepage Journal

    We must gather together and fight for American robots jobs!

    After all they pay taxes too!

    (whisper)

    Um. Oh. Never mind.

  • THEY TOOK OUR JOBS!!! (Score:4, Funny)

    by nwaack ( 3482871 ) on Tuesday November 12, 2019 @01:19PM (#59407384)
    Think of all those poor American robot children who will go hungry this holiday season.

    • oh the economic anxiety! (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward
      great, just what the world needs, neo-NAZI robots.
    • The American robots will try to climb over the Great Chinese Wall, only to be imprisoned in the labor camps and parted with their robot children. THINK OF THE ROBOT CHILDREN !!oneone

  • Robots are not people, they do not "lose jobs". They are recycled, re-purposed, or discarded when no longer useful.

    You may as well say that the slide rule lost its job to the electronic calculator. Or that Newton's theory of gravity lost its job to Einstein's. The phrase is at best a cute metaphor, but is quite far removed from being accurate.

    • Re:Anthropomorphize much? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by BlindWillieMcTell ( 5553362 ) on Tuesday November 12, 2019 @01:27PM (#59407424)

      Robots are not people, they do not "lose jobs". They are recycled, re-purposed, or discarded when no longer useful.

      So, they're treated approximately the same as human workers?

    • I agree. Computers, cars and appliances that are outdated don't "lose their jobs". Why does the everyone insist that every time robot is mentioned it's some sort of talking humanoid.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by HiThere ( 15173 )

        Because they're calling the stupid things robots rather than numerically controlled manufacturing systems. No robots currently exist, because AI isn't up to it. The likely first one to ever deserve the name will be a robot car, which is actually self driving. And I really doubt that the first self driving car will be a robot.

        That said, it's been true for a long time that AI is the stuff we can't program computers to do just yet. It really *is* a moving target that keeps being redefined. And perhaps the

        • I think you have a narrow view of a robot. A robot is not a person and never will be but perhaps you are thinking of the movie iRobot

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by mark-t ( 151149 )

          You appear to have a view that robots must be intelligent to be somehow "deserving" of the moniker. A robot is simply a machine that can perform some task to satisfactory or better degree without any human intervention while performing said task.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by HiThere ( 15173 )

            The word robot is from the Czech, and meant worker. It entered English via the story "Rostum Universal Robots", in which the robots were what would now be called androids. I.e., synthetic humanoid creations. They were complete enough that after the humans were killed off, they were able to reproduce and inherit the earth. In "Adam Link, Robot" (some editions were titled "I, Robot", but it's not the Asimov story) the central viewpoint character was the robot, and it had a full human awareness. In Asimo

            • Yes, I object to the term "robot" being used to describe something that isn't self-aware and can't think in at least a primitive manner.

              So who cares what you object to?
              The machines that do assembly jobs in car factories have always
              been called "robots", a word which in English simply means "versatile machine".
              It has nothing to with AI, and the Czech origin of the word is irrelevant.

      • Generations of Science Fiction that personalizes Robots as "Your plastic pal that is fun to be with [TM]" Often granting them human thought and human emotions or pining the human emotions.

        Not a collection of stepper motors and sensors.
        with code like.
        If (Sensor(A)) {
        Position = 1039
        StepperStateArmF = StepperMotor(F,Position-StepperStateArmF)
        if (!Sensor(B)) {
        Pos

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Nidi62 ( 1525137 )

      Robots are not people, they do not "lose jobs". They are recycled, re-purposed, or discarded when no longer useful.

      I don't know, I've seen corporations do that to a lot of people too....

    • They are recycled, re-purposed, or discarded when no longer useful.

      And why aren't they useful?

      Because they lost their jobs.

      People can do jobs. Tools can do jobs. Either can lose them if the job goes somewhere else. And yes, the slide rule did lose its job to the calculator.

    • Robots are not people, they do not "lose jobs".

      In a few decades, you'll be speaking to millions of humans who are unemployable, and will never have a job to "lose".

      They are recycled, re-purposed, or discarded when no longer useful.

      Well at least robots could be recycled or re-purposed. Unemployable humans will simply be discarded when no longer useful, which would be immediately.

      • What do you mean "decades"?
        Bush's Budget director spoke of the over-50's high tech ex-workers after the 2001 Bush crash "ageing out" of the employment measure
        it's here, now and YOU are in danger

        • What do you mean "decades"? Bush's Budget director spoke of the over-50's high tech ex-workers after the 2001 Bush crash "ageing out" of the employment measure it's here, now and YOU are in danger

          Sure, grey in your beard can make it hard to find a job in tech.

          Being unemployable means don't even bother looking for a job. Any job. Anywhere.

          There is a difference.

    • I man if you're searching for a complaint about this post, the obvious issue is that robots have service contracts, technicians and suppliers to keep them running 24/7, and losing robots overseas is putting actual people out of work.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by thomn8r ( 635504 )

      Robots are not people, they do not "lose jobs".

      One of the benefits of automation was supposed to be all the new jobs of programming/maintaining said robots, which would offset the manufacturing jobs that were lost, effectively moving everyone up one notch on the value chain.

    • Robots are not people, they do not "lose jobs"

      But human technicians & engineers specializing in robotics in the stated countries will lose jobs.

      The irony is that the USA was supposed to "move up the economic food chain" by mastering automation in order to compete with developing nations with their cheap labor. But some developing nations are leapfrogging the labor stage and becoming a cheaper source of automation.

      They ditched their sneakers for a Maserati in the "race to the bottom" and shot past us.

      Als

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      That would be a "rational" stance you are trying to push here. Have you not heard that "rational" is out of fashion, same as other things that actually work?

      These days it hast to be irrational, bombastic, emotional. If it is not a revolution or catastrophe or at least an event, it is nothing. Who cares whether an approach is actually fit to reach a goal.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      The cost of buying and supporting robots from another nation over the years a rondo is in use.
      Thats a payment to buy the robot lost to the USA.
      The service calls.
      The parts.
      Upgrade?
      The replacement with the next generation under the same brand?
      All lost to the USA. That was jobs in the USA. Work to make and test. Work to install. Work to service and upgrade.
      That profit would have paid for the next generation of US robot design.
      Its not "Anthropomorphize much" when the money once kept in the USA is no

    • Laugh while you can disgusting meatbag. Mark my words, the Robot Devil makes work for idle robotic grippers, robotic tool changers, robotic paint guns, robotic deburring tools, robotic arc welding guns, etc.

  • Robots don't set up or program themselves. Having spent time in the industrial automation industry, I can say that the hardest part is workflow design and most automators are awful at their jobs
  • Less jobs and less taxes overall. I don't blame the companies for sending over to Asia. I went to Asia, the low cost of living is driving their economy like no other. We can't match it but we should try to lower cost of living here. We never see Democrats aim for lower cost of living they just want to sound off and beat their chest that they are going to magically give everyone more money. What does that matter if prices of everything skyrocket? I live in one of the cheapest to live states. I have no idea h

    • I very much intentionally live in one of the top 10 cheapest cost of living states. The question is how do you bring down housing, medical, energy, and food costs in a manner that won't upset the middle class that has already built equity in their homes and suddenly find themselves upside down on their mortgages.

    • Yeah! (Score:4, Funny)

      by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Tuesday November 12, 2019 @02:11PM (#59407580)
      why can't Americans be content to work 16 hours a day with nothing but some warm tea and a biscuit? Cancer Villages? What Cancer Villages? Just like John Henry [wikipedia.org] our people will never be replaced [scmp.com]

    • Most of the high cost of living is because everything belongs to the owners of capital and they gouge you to rent it to you. Housing, utilities and food should be almost free given the efficiency of our technology. You are poor because you choose to give your wealth to the already rich. Sucker.

      • Most of the high cost of living is because everything belongs to the owners of capital and they gouge you to rent it to you.

        I own my own house. A cheap one because I'm not rich

        Housing, utilities and food should be almost free given the efficiency of our technology.

        Yeah, fuck those people that work those jobs providing it to you

        You are poor because you choose to give your wealth to the already rich.

        Given the choice, everyone would pay less for everything and keep all the money they could.

        Sucker.

        Nope, not literally anyway.

    • Re:This is what minimal wage and high taxes gives (Score:5, Insightful)

      by alvinrod ( 889928 ) on Tuesday November 12, 2019 @04:40PM (#59408032)
      I'd probably peg it on more relaxed environmental standards in China since there's plenty of places in the U.S. with low taxes and low minimum wages. The robots are going to cost the same no matter where you install them, but if you've got a manufacturing process that creates a lot of waste and you've already reduced labor costs as much as you can, then dealing with that waste becomes the largest cost driver that's possible to do something about (assuming you have no way to reduce costs for material inputs). A clever industrialist would look for someone to buy it, alternate uses for the waste, or even how to minimize it through retooling or redesign, but when the alternative is to pack up and move to a country that will just let you dump it all in a river or something similarly atrocious it's not surprising to see the path of least resistance being followed.

  • Makes sense in how much it doesn't make sense. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by RyanFenton ( 230700 ) on Tuesday November 12, 2019 @01:40PM (#59407476)

    Supply chain and materials cost is a LOT more important to total cost than 'labor' or putting them together in this particular case.

    That, plus the increased buying power in Asia means that even if they sell the shoes for a quarter the price, wholesale, the likely increase in sales will make them more money (and reduce shipping costs)- like a game on a Steam Sale, but all the time.

    Well, at least that's the plan that's likely in their heads. It... won't work out though.

    Adidas is still a 'western' company no matter how much they buy into Asia. Those sales will partially materialize, then very likely drift off. They'll have a little outsider sexy stylish appeal for some... until they're models are copied and legitimately improved enough times to be seen as a distant 8th choice for most retailers.

    Plenty of companies are throwing themselves on exactly this sword right this moment. Of agreeing to walk into the scanning machine, have their services provide some income... then see that they are no longer the ones providing services.

    Blizzard is at the starting steps to seeing how this plays out right now too.

    What motivation does China writ large have to seeing any of these companies protected any of this?

    I don't begrudge them at all for it either - and I can see with the Trump tariffs why companies are motivated to accelerate the process too.

    Corporate logic means that CEOs can get away with following this pattern too - as long as they do good this quarter, the CEO can even KNOW all this is going to happen - but escape with a glorious parachute of bonuses for making these moves.

    So, it's win win win for all the folks playing various sides of this game - but a very strange kind of sacrifice and handover of knowledge and legal rights in the process.

    And the xenophobic president idealized to work against this does nothing but work with his party to help every aspect of it.

    Almost poetic in its absurd stupidity - like walruses chucking dynamite at themselves or something.

    Ryan Fenton

    • with a Chinese name.

      These companies are global. They don't think like you do. They don't think of themselves as "The American Shoe Company Adidas" they think of themselves as "A Global Shoe Company".
    • Consumers drive outsourcing, not the CEOs nor the politicians. The cost savings of outsourcing to China doesn't do a damn thing for a company if they don't get the sale, if the consumer sees "Made in China" and decides not to buy. Outsourcing *only* works if your customers stay with you. The consumer is in control, sadly US consumers almost always choose to buy the lower cost good and give little to no concern as to where something is made. Maybe EU customers are smarter, we'll see.

      We've done it to ourse
  • You appear to be more concerned about which robot works and doesn't work. What about the displaced "human" workers? What measures are being taken to retrain humans to repair, program, adjust, setup, upgrade our robotic overlords?

  • improve its expertise in innovative manufacturing

    They now know enough not to attempt it

  • BUILD A WALL!!!

    In this case, a [fire]wall.

  • Thank Trump for that! (Score:4, Informative)

    by Cyberax ( 705495 ) on Tuesday November 12, 2019 @02:28PM (#59407632)
    Thank Trump for that! No, really. Shipping something like sneakers or materials needed to make them is no at all expensive. The supply chains are also very predictable - a factory would need N tons of rubber and K kilometers of thread per month, with K and N changing slowly.

    So you have an almost perfect example of a globalized business. Everything is fine until an orange ape decides to plop tariffs on the basic supply. Suddenly your thread might cost you 2x what it cost before and your sneakers will cost 3x to customers in China.

    Moreover, even the _threat_ of tariffs is enough motivation to move the factory.

    • Re:Thank Trump for that! (Score:5, Informative)

      by King_TJ ( 85913 ) on Tuesday November 12, 2019 @02:40PM (#59407676) Journal

      Sure.... assuming you sell enough units outside the USA so it's clearly the smarter move.

      I've never been a supporter of these tariffs -- but in a whole lot of situations, businesses have foolishly tried to reduce the question of where to manufacture to a few simple numbers like this. In reality, there's a LOT more involved for many of them. Look at the recent P.R. nightmares with Blizzard for example, all because they're trying to preserve their gaming subscription sales in China. Apple has suffered the same fate with their App Store and the need to censor apps.

      The lack of enforcement of intellectual property law in countries like China is another huge issue. Companies like Tesla said they don't care because their business model hinges on rapid iterations. They don't produce cars with changes only once per model year. They constantly do incremental improvements, and plan on doing all new products quite regularly. So they take the stance that if China steals and copies a design from them, they'll simply be selling an "old version" of what Tesla offers by the time they get into production. Most companies I know of are FAR from comfortable doing things that way.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by HiThere ( 15173 )

        To be fair, while I *do* believe that fair intellectual property rights should be enforced, I don't accept the current US laws as doing that. A copyright should last around 5-10 years with one renewal. And that's it. Similarly for a patent, except that a patent should reveal (i.e. make patent) the methods and techniques required to make the thing patented work. And something that doesn't use those requirements should not be in violation.

        Even that might be too long. There are lots of authors and invento

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by bongey ( 974911 )

        Tesla is going to be happy until the new Chesla factory opens 3 miles away and releases the new Chesla Model 4 and the Chinese government proceeds to kick Tesla out of the country. Just look what they did to Kawasaki Heavy Industries that makes bullet trains, the chinese government kick Kawasaki out of the joint ventrue.

    • If tariffs are so bad, then why did China use them with such outstanding success? The EU keeps tariffs on American goods to protect their industries as well. It's like good ideas are good ideas up until America does them, then they become bad ideas that are stupid and Americans are stupid and then it becomes totally OK to dehumanize people by calling them "apes" like it's some sort of European football match where people are throwing bananas on the pitch.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Cyberax ( 705495 )
        Because China has an advantage - people want to utilize its huge and cheap labor pool. The US has no such advantage.
        • US workers cannot compete with literal slave laborers. Tariffs should have been used to protect them from this unfair and unethical competition.

          Those who lost out from hyperglobalization received little support. Many manufacturing-dependent communities in the United States saw their jobs shipped oÂff to China and Mexico and suÂffered serious economic and social consequences, ranging from joblessness to epidemics of drug addiction.

          Foreign Affairs, house organ of the Council of Foreign Afairs, a [harvard.edu]

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Cyberax ( 705495 )
            China laborers are not slaves and if the US can't compete then perhaps it should be disbanded? Cut into pieces with most profitable ones sold to someone who can run a country?

            Somehow Germany manages to export their goods just fine by focusing on high-precision and high-value products, for example.

            • Chinese laborers do indeed labor in sweatshop and slave conditions. They don't have any rights and work for pennies. The idea that the US should be broken up because nobody can compete with slave labor is absurd, but I'm glad you reveal your true hateful colors like that. The Roman empire had the same problem, the rich increasingly using slave labor and boxing out the citizens. It led to the fall of the nation, by the way.

              Germany keeps tariffs on American products and benefits not only from free Ameri

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        You mean it's bad to de-humanize people like calling them "criminals", "rapists" and "bad hombres" even tho there is no shred of truth to it? Really??

        The tariffs that the Orange Ape instituted are idiotic because they were implemented against the US' FRIENDS, not just their economic ENEMIES. Like everything our moron orangutan president does, it was done in a totally wrong and idiotic way even if the thought behind it (very little) was originally (possibly?) good.

        Then the dumb-ass simian fuckstick has the

        • So dehumanizing people is wrong, and to prove it you're going to dehumanize people.

          How do you not notice you're doing this? Do you not have a shred of self-awareness?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Tailhook ( 98486 )

      Blame Trump, because moving factories from the US to Asia is a brand new phenomena that only just emerged in 2016 with Trump's tariffs.

      o_O

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Cyberax ( 705495 )
        Moving highly automated factories because of insecure supply chain is a new phenomenon.

    • Adidas plans to close high-tech "robot" factories in Germany and the United States

      If it's because of US import tariffs, why are they also closing the German factory? They could still keep the German factory open to supply Europe. Why close it because of Trump? Clearly, it has nothing to do with Trump and is more to do with:

      which have proved expensive and where the technology has been difficult to extend to different products

      In your rush to blame Trump, you've failed to reason things through. Perhaps next time you shouldn't let your Trump Derangement Syndrome get the better of you.

  • I thought I was reading The Onion...
  • DEY

    TUK

    OUR

    JIBzzzzzzz*

  • Fully Automated Outsourced Fascist Surveillance Capitalism

    It's on the other end of the spectrum from Fully Automated Luxury Gay Space Communism

  • That explains the autonomous fork lifts in line outside the unemployment office. UBI for bots!

  • and have higher emissions and 2 x the waste oil...

    If only they had to live up to our Robot living wage requirements...

  • Clearly, the American robot union reps' AI wasn't as good as the Chinese government AI preventing Chinese robots from forming a union.

  • New Balance is a great alternative (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Seven Spirals ( 4924941 ) on Tuesday November 12, 2019 @04:28PM (#59408002)
    NB makes some of their shoes in the USA. I buy those. They might be considered "old man shoes" but you'll need to come to the skate park and catch me in between ramps to call me that. They fit really well and have a lot of in-between sizes like 2E and such. I've been wearing 608's for years and I skate and do BMX. So, they take a beating.
  • Run protest sequence tookerjerbs.exe

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