The cosmetic production workshop is as strict as a key laboratory, with more machines than people. With 6 mask filling machines, hundreds of millions of masks can be produced annually with a few manpower... Such smart workshops and "light-off factories" are not uncommon in the factories of Taiwanese businessmen in Jiangsu.


Facing downward pressure on the economy, rising labor costs, and difficulty in recruiting workers, Taiwanese businessmen who are at the "top" of the manufacturing industry have been "substituting machines" and ushered in a wave of "substitutions".


The electronics industry is generally considered to be one of the most competitive industries and is highly capital and labor intensive.


At Wistron Capital (Kunshan) Co., Ltd., director Zhou Hongren told reporters that now the company only used 40% of the past employees to achieve the annual production capacity four years ago, because of automation investment. From 2012 to 2015, factories in Chongqing, Chengdu and Kunshan invested more than 100 million yuan (RMB, the same below) in "machines", replacing 3,000 manpower.


Wistron Group is one of the largest ODM (Original Design Manufacturing) companies in the world, and its foundry is located in Kunshan. The revenue of notebook computers (“notebooks”) here once accounted for 80 to 90 percent of local companies. "Putting eggs in one basket" is too risky, and now the proportion of laptops has been "diluted" to fifty or sixty percent.


Laptop assembly is becoming more and more complex, and the "replace" movement will no longer stop. Zhou Hongren said that in the future, the number of people who can achieve the same production capacity will be reduced to a quarter of the past.


The tire industry is a "three-intensive" industry of capital, technology and personnel. Advanced Taiwanese businessmen in the tire industry will carry out "substitution" more thoroughly.


Located in Kunshan, Zhengxin Rubber (China) Co., Ltd. is the seventh largest tire company in the world, with an annual production capacity of 20 million tires.


Last year, the factory carried out a "shuffle-style" transformation and upgrading of the production line. General Manager Li Jinchang described it as "an old tree blossoming": tire molding to delivery is the second half of the production process, and the process is long, and they are here. The segment has been unmanned, and the efficiency has increased exponentially. For example, the production capacity of a molding machine is increased from 500 to 1600, saving half of the labor.


"Tire is not synonymous with backwardness and high pollution. It is a product that combines many high-tech elements." Li Jinchang revealed that his tire "unmanned factory" is about to be born.


Jiangsu is a major manufacturing province in the mainland, and more than 26,000 Taiwan-funded projects are gathered here. In the manufacturing fields of electronic devices, textiles, daily necessities, and pharmaceuticals, "machine substitution" has become the norm.


During the visit, although Taiwanese businessmen faced many bottlenecks and problems, they still generally held a firm attitude and determination to win the industry's expectations.