4 Reasons Canon Turns to Robots for Overseas Factories

Canon Inc. installed assembly robots at its Thai printer factory. Outsourcing smoutorcing…. Canon wants to automate its overseas factories to the tune of a $5 million (y500M) investment between now and March 2010.

Canon’s robots already produce replacement items – think toner cartridtges.

However, until now, factory workers have overseen complex assembly. No mas, um, no more.

At Canon’s Thai plant there is now a proprietary robot for assembling parts that are used in printer heads of ink-jet printers.

Canon will eventually:

1. expand to round-the-clock operation

2. improve productivity by 10%

3. improve quality

4. limit its exposure to rising personnel costs.

The reason America doesn’t do something with robots – union costs are too high.