A new report from The Information today details Apple’s efforts to automate more of the iPhone production process. The report explains that Apple has told managers to “reduce the number of workers on iPhone final assembly lines by as much as 50% over the next few years.” According to the report, this edict was handed down by Sabih Khan, Apple’s senior vice president of operations. The decision was reportedly made shortly after violent clashes between iPhone workers and police outside of Foxconn’s primary assembly plant in November 2022. In order to reduce its overall headcount, The Information reports that Apple is moving forward with supply chain and production automation projects that it “had previously mothballed due to high up-front costs.” The machinery necessary to automate iPhone production can sometimes cost hundreds of millions of dollars each year. In some instances, Apple pressured manufacturing partners to make this up-front investment, with varying degrees of success. According to data published by Apple in annual supply chain reports, “the total number of employees it monitors at its manufacturing partners for work-hour compliance” fell from 1.6 million in 2022 to 1.4 million in 2023. The report says there is a “significant amount of automation” in the final assembly of the iPhone 15. Much of this work is led by Peter Thompson, an operations vice president at Apple: Over the past year, Thompson’s team has successfully automated parts of the iPhone’s assembly, working closely with manufacturing partners such as Foxconn, Luxshare Precision and Pegatron. Those successes include machines that install metal brackets and flexible printed circuit boards onto components without human aid, said multiple people with direct knowledge of the effort.
Full story : Apple wants to replace 50% of iPhone final assembly line workers with automation.
