What is a 'postmodern industrial empire'?
I'm not sure it makes any sense, like the gradient of a cow.
The Man Who Makes Your iPhone
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Re: The Man Who Makes Your iPhone
#12So %0.0012 (11/920'000) of their workforce has committed suicide? What is the average percentage of suicide deaths in that age range in china?
Significantly higher than that, from what I understand. It's actually one of those unfortunately 'uninteresting' headlines that will just never make headlines: "Foxconn suicides significantly below national averages." Remember: newspapers and blogs are in the selling eyeballs business, not in the reporting news business.
Well, to be fair, these people commited suicide at work and sometimes left notes pointing to their failures at work while working 7 days a week for 15 hours a day. I don't personally think this story is just media hype. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2010-05/25/c_133... http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/malcolmmoore/100039883/wha...
From the linked Telegraph article, "For those who believe the spate of suicides is statistically in line, given how many people work at Foxconn, consider this: the company says it has prevented a further 30 people from trying to kill themselves in the past three weeks alone."
Re: The Man Who Makes Your iPhone
#13So %0.0012 (11/920'000) of their workforce has committed suicide? What is the average percentage of suicide deaths in that age range in china?
Those who committed suicide were between 18 and 29 years old. The suicide rate in mainland China for 15 to 24 year olds is 0.007 percent, the suicide rate for 25 to 34 year olds is 0.015 percent (WHO, 1999, http://www.who.int/mental_health/media/chin.pdf).
I wouldn’t be so fast with comparisons, though. You might have to double your percentage (the suicides happened between January and May 2010). I also don’t know whether suicides of Foxconn workers not on company estates are included. That might skew the numbers substantially.
Re: The Man Who Makes Your iPhone
#14So %0.0012 (11/920'000) of their workforce has committed suicide? What is the average percentage of suicide deaths in that age range in china?
The United States Army has a suicide rate of 20.2/100,000.
Re: The Man Who Makes Your iPhone
#15So %0.0012 (11/920'000) of their workforce has committed suicide? What is the average percentage of suicide deaths in that age range in china?
stringing more than 3 million square meters of yellow-mesh netting around its buildings to catch jumpers
Out of all the ways to reduce the suicide rate, I don't think this would of made my list.
Re: The Man Who Makes Your iPhone
#16"When Apple's iPhone4 was nearing production, Foxconn and Apple discovered that the metal frame was so specialized that it could be made only by an expensive, low-volume machine usually reserved for prototypes. Apple's designers wouldn't budge on their specs, so Gou ordered more than 1,000 of the $20,000 machines from Tokyo-based Fanuc. Most companies have just one."
You can count to twenty million very, very quickly in manufacturing. There are individual buttons in and near Nagoya that cost more if you press them once.
I believe it was Intel that used to joke about the "million-dollar club". The story I heard is that, as a fab engineer, you got admitted to the club by accidentally spoiling one lot of wafers, each of which represented more than one million dollars in gross revenue.
Since there are many, many potential process mistakes that can spoil an entire lot at once, the implication was that you weren't going to remain outside the club for very long.
Re: The Man Who Makes Your iPhone
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
Significantly higher than that, from what I understand. It's actually one of those unfortunately 'uninteresting' headlines that will just never make headlines: "Foxconn suicides significantly below national averages." Remember: newspapers and blogs are in the selling eyeballs business, not in the reporting news business.
Well, to be fair, these people commited suicide at work and sometimes left notes pointing to their failures at work while working 7 days a week for 15 hours a day. I don't personally think this story is just media hype. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2010-05/25/c_133... http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/malcolmmoore/100039883/wha... From the linked Telegraph article, "For those who believe the spate of s…
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Re: The Man Who Makes Your iPhone
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can count to twenty million very, very quickly in manufacturing. There are individual buttons in and near Nagoya that cost more if you press them once.
I believe it was Intel that used to joke about the "million-dollar club". The story I heard is that, as a fab engineer, you got admitted to the club by accidentally spoiling one lot of wafers, each of which represented more than one million dollars in gross revenue. Since there are many, many potential process mistakes that can spoil an entire lot at once, the implication was that you weren't going to remain outside…
Wait until someone forgets to tick off "Items to be returned to toolbox: ... #32) Phillips Screwdriver (1)" prior to testing ignition on a prototype aircraft engine. A million will sound cheap.
Have I mentioned that the engineering culture in this neck of the woods takes checklists very effing seriously?
Re: The Man Who Makes Your iPhone
#19What is a 'postmodern industrial empire'? I'm not sure it makes any sense, like the gradient of a cow.
If you take ‘postmodern’ as denoting merely time (say, post-1980s) it does make sense.
Re: The Man Who Makes Your iPhone
#20So %0.0012 (11/920'000) of their workforce has committed suicide? What is the average percentage of suicide deaths in that age range in china?
stringing more than 3 million square meters of yellow-mesh netting around its buildings to catch jumpers Out of all the ways to reduce the suicide rate, I don't think this would of made my list.
To be fair, this is no the only thing they did, and it is a lot more visual than the other methods they tried. Visual can be good.
They had to do the same thing at a mall near where I live, they strung up safety nets to stop people jumping the 7 stories to their deaths. Of course, there weren't workers at the mall, but it is just something you can do, on top of the usual.