TECH - Tim Cook's Goal To Slash Assembly Workers By Up To 50% Faces Setback: Apple Reportedly Facing Precision Issues With Robots While Assembling iPhones | Benzinga
Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ:AAPL) plans to significantly reduce its iPhone assembly workforce by as much as 50% over the next few years and is facing headwinds due to precision issues, according to a recent report.
What Happened: The Cupertino-based tech giant is looking to scale back on human workers in favor of automation, a move that could have significant implications for international labor markets, reported The Information.
The decision is partly influenced by the challenges Apple faced during the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused supply chain disruptions and delays.
In 2022, a riot at Foxconn’s main iPhone factory in Zhengzhou, China, brought attention to the poor working conditions and low wages.
This led to Apple’s senior vice president of operations, Sabih Khan, issuing a directive to reduce the number of workers on iPhone final assembly lines by up to 50% over the next few years.