Chinese factory workers being replaced by robots - 2015 

In China's factories, the robots are rising.
It's part of a broader overhaul of the economy as China seeks to vault into the ranks of wealthy nations.
But it comes as the country's growth slows amid tepid global demand that's adding pressure on tens of thousands of manufacturers.
With costs rising and profits shrinking, Chinese manufacturers will only be able to survive in the near future by successfully transitioning from the current labour-oriented mode to more automated manufacturing.
Shenzhen Rapoo Technology Co. is among the companies at ground zero of this transformation.
At its factory in the southern Chinese industrial boomtown of Shenzhen, orange robot arms work alongside human operators assembling computer mice and keyboards.
The company began its push into automation five years ago. Rapoo installed 80 robots made by Sweden's ABB Ltd. to assemble mice, keyboards and their sub-components.
The robots allowed the company to save USD $1.6 million each year and trim its workforce to less than 1,000 from a peak of more than 3,000 in 2010.
Such upgrading underscores the grand plans China's communist leaders have for industrial robotics.
President Xi Jinping called in a speech last year for a "robot revolution" in a nod to automation's vital role in raising productivity.
Authorities have announced measures such as subsidies and tax incentives over the past three years to encourage industrial automation as well as development of a home grown robotics industry.
A relentless surge in wages is adding impetus to the automation revolution. China relied on a seemingly endless supply of cheap labour for decades to power its economic expansion.
That equation is changing as the country's working age population stops growing and more Chinese graduate from university, resulting in a dwindling supply of unskilled workers, annual double-digit percentage increases in the minimum wage and rising labour unrest.
Rapoo's wage bill rising 15-20 percent a year was one big factor driving its use of robots, according to Pboll Deng, Rapoo's deputy general manager.
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Story number for this item is: 4005047