Apple completes "iPod City" investigation into Foxconn
By Ryan Block 
posted August 18th 2006 8:57AM
posted August 18th 2006 8:57AM
Well, looks like Apple's all done with that investigation into Foxconn's 200,000 person manufacturing facility where some 30,000 people assemble iPods for a living. Apparently Cupertino farmed out some of the work to a firm that specializes in workplace standards of conduct, and put in over 1200 "person-hours" (i.e. a team of 5 people working 40 hours a week for 30 workdays) into investigating everybody from line workers to executives to the janitors at the plant. The long and short of it is Apple apparently did not find child or forced labor, learned that more than half of iPod city residents were earning more than minimum wage (and none below), and that there was no forced overtime, but it was found that workweeks too infrequently went long (as often as 35% of the time), some interim dorms for the workers sounded pretty harsh (think: rows of triple bunk-beds on a factory floor), and some workers were "made to stand at attention" when they did something wrong. That Apple took special attention to that last bit is only a wee bit ironic, given Steve's reputation for flying off the handle and firing people on the spot, but hey, "Apple has a zero tolerance policy for any instance, isolated or not, of any treatment of workers that could be interpreted as harsh," and that's the way it is. You know, come to think of it all this gadget blogging is wearing a little thin -- all this iPod assembly stuff kinda sounds like the life for us. Where do we sign up to live in the real iPod city, and not this fake one we've built for ourselves?[Thanks, Motoi & Joey]
If Apple really cared to clear it's name, they'd just move manufacturing to the U.S.
Anyone know what any iPod costs to make?
Nike has this same problem. They claim it's to keep the shoes cost down, but they're still $80 to $120 for a pair. I've read that these big corporations go over seas not only for cheap labor, but to skirt paying U.S. taxes.
The point is, even if they could manufacture it for the same cost in America, it would be crap.
See: American cars.
@ Jordan,
American-built cars are some of the finest cars you can own, right up there with Japanese manufactured cars. The problem is American design, and the fact that "American cars" aren't even manufactured in America anymore (Ford, Chevy, Dodge). It's a real shame when most cars manufactured in America are from foreign car companies when America used to be the great automobile giant.
As far as iPods go, you hit the nail on the head when you said "if they could manufacture it for the same cost in America." They can't. Our capitalism is modeled such that companies are always looking for ways to cut costs and meet consumer demand. In a sense, we are our own worst economic enemy. We want the latest gadgets at an incredibly low price, and that is what drives companies like Apple to outsource out of the country.
And Smoke_Dawg_187, if you think iPods are expensive now, I shudder to think of what they would cost if they were manufactured in America. Capitalism is profit-driven, and to move manufacturing to America while keeping the retail price the same would be ludicrous in Apple's eyes.
Jordan, American cars, which are certainly not all "crap", chiefly have design flaws that cause them to be "crap". Honda, Toyota, lots of "non-crap" cars are assembled right here in the good ole land of all-thumbs, lazy and slovenly American workers -- oh don't forget stupid. By your reasoning, all Apple products are "crap" because they are designed here and manufactured overseas.
Overseas manufacturing *does* keep the shoe cost down, the iPod cost down. But the market will only bear so much. Nike, Apple, they charge what the market will bear, not a penny less. Then they manufacture the product, usually overseas, for as little cost as possible. Then they take the difference. Individual unit costs from stateside manufacturing, you wouldn't notice so much -- products would cost more but not insurmountably more. But across millions of units, it's a lot of money, a lot savings that you will never see but they corporation will take away in profit.
Ryan, while I obviously agree with you about American cars, the "stateside manufacturing will make the product unaffordable" argument is corporate p.r. myth. It will make the corporations take more reasonable profits. That's why it goes overseas.
FYI... "American" cars are mostly made in mexico. Cars made in America are usually pretty reliable considering they're Hondas, Nissans, etc.
"Apple has a zero tolerance policy for any instance, isolated or not, of any treatment of workers that could be interpreted as harsh."
That's a load of crap, they should do an internal investigation on their own Fifth Avenue store.
"Where do we sign up to live in the real iPod city, and not this fake one we've built for ourselves?"
The last line of your writeup is pretty damned insensitive, considering the working and living conditions of many of the people who assemble much of the crap you use on a day to day basis. May they have mercy on your grandchildren, who will likely be serving fries to theirs at the rate we're going.
(...)put in over 1200 "person-hours" (i.e. a team of 5 people working 40 hours a week for 30 workdays) (...)
Wouldn't that be 6,000 "person-hours"? 5*(40*30)
1200 person-hours = 5 persons * 8 hours per workday * 30 workdays. The 40 hours per week is an independent variable, and would only affect the number of weeks spent on the project.
Mark, your numbers are figuring if each person worked 40 hours a DAY. ;)
Divide by 5 after all that!
Wow. That was a pretty big miss on my part. Please disregard...
ITA with Gene. I agree that it's a stupidly insensitive comment.
We cannot on the one hand say we want affordable products, then try to complain about how and where they are made.
Chinese slave labor is how you get your cheap clothes at Mervyns and Walmart. Plus, those Chinese workers probably live like kings on their $1/month salary.
This is one of the advantages of doing business in a place with little to no regulations, and where the value of human life is low.
"American-built cars are some of the finest cars you can own"
...that's just utterly false. The tolerances that Japanese and German manufacturers build to are 100s of times more accurate and specific than american engineered vehicles. It has little-to-nothing to do with WHERE the car is manufactured, domestic cars are ENGINEERED with higher tolerances so that manufacturing (and even repair) can be done with much less accuracy, leading to a serious decline in longevity and efficiency.
saying that they are "the finest" from an engineering standpoint is just false. They may be great, and you may love them, and they might be very expensive and reliable, but when speaking of engineering and manufacturing, they are not by any stretch of the imagination "the Finest" (though they may not be the worst either: Korean and even British are known for poor engineering and build quality.)
Let's just reduce your comment to personal experience: Show me a Domestic engine that can, properly maintained, reliably perform at over 400 thousand miles. i challenge you to do so. :P (...and not just a single example, but an engine design that can repeatably do so.)
Even just anecdotal evidence. For every american engine you can show me that's still alive after even just 300K miles, i'll show you 10 japanese or german engines.
What a bunch of crock.. Apple is known for being pricks to employees, and treating bloggers like trash. This is just a pure PR move and should be disregarded.
American cars are good?
Heh, give me some of what you're smoking please because it MUST be daaaamn gooood.
Even Nissans and Hondas are not really manufactured in the US rather than assembled.
So if I assemple a PC made of quality goods I can then claim all the glory?
In any case its not even an opinion, rather a fact that cards in oder of quality are made in:
1) Europe
2) Japan
3) Rest of the world.
For a long time, european car manufacturers had agreed not to even put disc-brakes on cars exported to the US for fear of having their technology imitated [read:stolen].
Every country has its areas of expertise and as much as you may wish it were true, cars just isn't one of them.
Computer components however, especially CPUs are something that I would take US/Japanese made over any other pretty much every time.
For the guy who said all american ars are crap.. every Toyota engine in the US/Canada was made in West Virginia USA...