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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><h1><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D'>Hi Y’all<o:p></o:p></span></h1><h1><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D'>Robots are taking over the world.<o:p></o:p></span></h1><h1><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D'>Dave<o:p></o:p></span></h1><h1><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></h1><h1> <img width=377 height=76 id="Picture_x0020_49" src="cid:image004.png@01D2CBF0.9C6B6840"><o:p></o:p></h1><h1>A Robot Revolution, This Time in China<o:p></o:p></h1><p class=byline-dateline><span class=byline><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>By <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/keith-bradsher" title="More Articles by KEITH BRADSHER"><span class=byline-author>KEITH BRADSHER</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class=byline-dateline><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>MAY 12, 2017 </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=byline-dateline><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=byline-dateline><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><img border=0 width=1152 height=599 id="Picture_x0020_42" src="cid:image007.jpg@01D2CBF0.9C6B6840"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=story-body-text id=story-continues-1><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>HANGZHOU, China — Even a decade ago, car manufacturing in China was still a fairly low-tech, labor-intensive endeavor. Thousands of workers in a factory, earning little more than $1 an hour, performed highly repetitive tasks, while just a handful of industrial robots dotted factory floors.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=story-body-text><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>No longer.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=story-body-text><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>At Ford’s newest car assembly plant in Hangzhou in east-central China, at least 650 robots, resembling huge, white-necked vultures, bob and weave to assemble the steel structures of utility vehicles and midsize sedans. Workers in blue uniforms and helmets <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/23/business/international/china-jobs-donald-trump.html">still do some</a> of the welding, but much of the process has been automated.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><img border=0 width=1152 height=758 id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image008.jpg@01D2CBF0.9C6B6840" alt="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2017/05/11/business/00chinaford6/00chinaford6-superJumbo.jpg"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span class=caption-text><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>The Ford plant in Hangzhou.</span></span><span style='font-size:14.0pt'> <span class=visually-hidden>Credit</span><span class=credit> Giulia Marchi for The New York Times </span></span><span class=credit><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=story-body-text id=story-continues-3><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>The state-of-the-art factory exemplifies the vast transformation that has taken place across manufacturing in China. General Motors opened a similarly ultra-modern Cadillac factory in the eastern suburbs of Shanghai, as well as one in Wuhan. Other automakers are also pouring billions of dollars into China, now the world’s largest auto market.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=story-body-text><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>Robots are critical to China’s economic ambitions, as Chinese companies look to move up the manufacturing chain. The Ford assembly plant is across the street from a robot-producing factory owned by Kuka, the big German manufacturer of industrial robots that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/25/business/dealbook/germany-china-technology-takeover.html">a Chinese company bought last summer</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><img border=0 width=1152 height=769 id="Picture_x0020_2" src="cid:image009.jpg@01D2CBF0.9C6B6840" alt="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2017/05/11/business/00chinaford3/00chinaford3-superJumbo.jpg"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span class=caption-text><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>Automated machinery at the Ford plant.</span></span><span style='font-size:14.0pt'> <span class=visually-hidden>Credit</span><span class=credit> Giulia Marchi for The New York Times </span></span><span class=credit><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=story-body-text id=story-continues-5><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>For carmakers, the reliance on robots is driven partly by cost. Blue-collar wages have soared because multinational companies have moved much of their production to China even as its labor force is rapidly changing. The combination of the one-child policy, which cut the birth rate through the 1980s and ’90s, and an eightfold increase in college enrollments has cut by more than half the number of people entering the work force each year who have less than a high school degree and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/25/business/as-graduates-rise-in-china-office-jobs-fail-to-keep-up.html">may be willing to consider factory work</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=story-body-text id=story-continues-6><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>Blue-collar wages are now $4 to $6 an hour in large, prosperous cities, though still far lower than in the United States.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>Automation is also a competitive necessity. As carmakers jockey for customers’ attention, they have no choice but to deploy the latest technologies, even in research and development. The challenge is how to keep a competitive edge, while trying <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/07/business/china-trade-manufacturing-europe.html">to prevent </a><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/07/business/china-trade-manufacturing-europe.html">intellectual property </a>from being copied quickly by Chinese rivals.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span class=visually-hidden><span style='font-size:14.0pt'> </span></span><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><img border=0 width=1152 height=769 id="Picture_x0020_3" src="cid:image015.jpg@01D2CBF0.9C6B6840" alt="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2017/05/11/business/00chinaford4/00chinaford4-superJumbo.jpg"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span class=caption-text><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>Automakers see their reliance on robots as being driven by cost and competitive demands.</span></span><span style='font-size:14.0pt'> <span class=visually-hidden>Credit</span><span class=credit> Giulia Marchi for The New York Times </span></span><span class=credit><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=story-body-text id=story-continues-10><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>“We’re basically building an R&D center here in China, and test track, that is on par with other parts of Ford,” in North America, Europe and Australia, said Mark Fields, the chief executive of Ford Motor. At the same time, he said, the company would protect its intellectual property.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=story-body-text id=story-continues-11><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>Robots perform tasks like welding in exactly the same way every time, improving quality control. But they require a lot of fine-tuning along the way.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=story-body-text id=story-continues-12><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>The painting process is also mostly automated. Elaborate spraying robots, their joints covered in many layers of plastic so that they do not become clogged with paint mist, snake back and forth across each car body. Workers still apply protective sealant to the vehicles’ interiors and underbodies, as Ford has been leery of depending entirely on robots for this step until it is sure they work well. More robots are scheduled to be installed in August, replacing manual labor for the protective sealant step as well.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><img border=0 width=1152 height=768 id="Picture_x0020_41" src="cid:image016.jpg@01D2CBF0.9C6B6840" alt="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2017/05/11/business/00chinaford5/00chinaford5-superJumbo.jpg"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span class=caption-text><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>Robots covered in multiple layers of plastic apply primer to vehicle frames at Ford’s Hangzhou plant.</span></span><span style='font-size:14.0pt'> <span class=visually-hidden>Credit</span><span class=credit> Sarah Li for The New York Times </span></span><span class=credit><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=story-body-text id=story-continues-14><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>Automation doesn’t elicit the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/25/technology/personaltech/how-to-make-americas-robots-great-again.html">same fear of job losses</a> in China as in the United States. With car demand in China growing quickly, ever more factories and workers are needed to produce more cars. The Ford factory here in Hangzhou may have 650 robots, but it also has 2,800 workers. Other automakers continue to hunt for skilled workers to fill vacancies in their factories.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=story-body-text><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>“Robots aren’t the threat,” said Paul Buetow, the director of China manufacturing at General Motors. “The threat is not being able to run your business with products that people want to buy.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=story-print-citation><i><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>A version of this article appears in print on May 13, 2017, on Page B3 of the New York edition with the headline: A Robot Revolution in China as Car Manufacturers Look to Cut Costs.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class=story-print-citation><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>An excellent video of the robots building Ford cars in China is at:</span></b><i><span style='font-size:14.0pt'> <span class=story-footer-links> </span></span></i><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/12/business/a-robot-revolution-this-time-in-china.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/12/business/a-robot-revolution-this-time-in-china.html</a></span><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal>If you prefer not to receive these postings, please hit REPLY and write REMOVE NAME on the subject line.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><table class=MsoNormalTable border=1 cellpadding=0 style='border:none;border-top:solid #D3D4DE 1.0pt'><tr><td width=55 style='width:41.25pt;border:none;padding:9.75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt'><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><a href="https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=emailclient&utm_term=icon" target="_blank"><span style='text-decoration:none'><img border=0 width=46 height=29 id="_x0000_i1031" src="https://ipmcdn.avast.com/images/icons/icon-envelope-tick-round-orange-animated-no-repeat-v1.gif"></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td width=470 style='width:352.5pt;border:none;padding:9.0pt .75pt .75pt .75pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:13.5pt'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#41424E'>Virus-free. <a href="https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=emailclient&utm_term=link" target="_blank"><span style='color:#4453EA'>www.avast.com</span></a> <o:p></o:p></span></p></td></tr></table><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></body></html>