iPhone soon to be Hecho en Mexico? Taiwan's Foxconn, Pegatron mulling going south of the US border – report Taiwanese electronics manufacturers Foxconn and Pegatron are, along with other equipment makers, reportedly considering building factories in the sunny climes of Mexico. Reuters cited three sources familiar with the matter in reporting that Foxconn is considering the Latin American nation as a potential home for a massive new …
yeah, well, I expect 'Hecho en Mexico' or similar to be proudly displayed on the package someplace. There's a bit of pride in what they do, south of the border, and they'll do a good job.
And I bet there will be the opportunity for more automated assembly in Mexico, newer equipment etc. If you're going to make a capital investment in buildings, equipment, and hiring, the cost of transportation and "other things" make Mexico a sensible choice. And, let's face it - more automation means you don't have to hire quite as many new people to do the same job...
[I'll avoid a mental image of hundreds of people hand-placing components with tweezers and magnifiers, because I don't think they actually do that any more in China... or do they?]
>I'll avoid a mental image of hundreds of people hand-placing components with tweezers and magnifiers
A modern pick and place system is a lot faster and more accurate than any human being, even assuming a human can actually place the parts in the first place. The units I'm familiar with are German, BTW, which explains why the German economy has been doing OK, they're big in industrial automation.
Not all parts can be placed by the machine. Typically what will happen is that the bulk of the board gets placed and soldered in a very long 'oven', the board will get cleaned and any parts that can't go through this process due to size or intolerance to being cooked in a ten zone oven will be placed and soldered manually. (A factory's procedures will vary depending on the product volume.) After cleaning and testing the board will then be given a conformal coating. Its wonderful to watch and while we're aware that there's Chinese facilities that are sub-standard any serious one will be using the same state of the art equipment that we do.
There's nothing stopping the same kind of lines being set up in Mexico but why would you bother? We're the other side of the border in California and so you wouldn't be surprised to discover that if you're on the shop floor the most common language spoken by the workforce is Spanish**. The workforce is reasonably well paid but that's only part of the story -- its the setting up and supervision of the lines that's the skilled work -- its seriouisly skilled work (and diagnosing problems isn't trivial, either).
(**Obviously everyone being a local is totally bi-lingual. Its a cultural thing.....)
There will be a 2 deprived area’s soon for consideration when Ford close and Nissan leaveZ
Indeed in Bridgend you could either poach some staff from Sony - make high end broadcast equipment, Contract electronics manufacturing (the make Raspberry Pi’s there) and repair centre. I’m sure many of the Ford engine plant (internal and contract for JLR) staff can be retrained.
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