China’s appliance industry gets intelligentized  

海尔裁员上万:机器人总动员 自动化挑战"中国制造"

海尔首席执行官张瑞敏关于“裁员”的言论亦引发外界广泛关注。张瑞敏称，去年初海尔员工数量是8.6万人，年底减少至7万人，裁员比例为18%，今年预计再裁掉1万人。据了解，海尔减员的主要原因是制造业务的智能化减少了用工数量。[查看全文]

(ECNS) – Automated robots are reshaping China's appliance industry.

Haier, one of China's largest electronic appliance manufacturers, announced a layoff of 10,000 workers by the end of the year. Last year, the company removed 18 percent of its employees from the payroll.

The industry's automation is viewed by experts as the major reason for the massive layoffs – an increasing number of robots are performing the work once done by humans.

Many major appliance makers such as Gree, Midea and Galanz are reporting the same trend.

Midea said a total of 500 robots are employed in its air conditioner manufacturing. The move has helped save over 8 million yuan ($1.3 m) in 2013.

Using robots could also ease employees' work load and raise work efficiency. Galanz reported a 40 percent rise in production.

Gg-Robot President Zhang Xiaofei said surging labor costs and difficulties in finding the right workers have spurred the robot boom.

For example, Guangdong province underwent a short-term labor shortage earlier this year, with a gap of up to one million workers.

With an increasing number of industries getting automated, China has become the largest robot market in the world.