Video footage from Foxconn has been extremely rare, with very few reporters getting access to Foxconn’s campus, let alone being allowed to carry cameras inside. So every bit of information originating from inside Foxconn, especially pertaining to Apple’s products, is interesting to say the least.
A new video of a Chinese journalist getting a tour of Foxconn’s Zhengzhou plant by Foxconn’s CEO, Terry Gou, has surfaced, giving us details about the assembly line churning out 70 percent of the total iPhones produced.
This video is pretty significant since it gives us a good look at the iPhone assembly line, something we haven’t really seen before.
It starts with the CEO giving the reporter an aerial tour of the plant, showing the sheer size of the campus. The 2.2 square mile plant (5.6 square km) employs more than a hundred thousand workers, with further expansion being planned for the future.
The reporter is then taken to the iPhone assembly line. From The Next Web’s translation of the video:
The area of the factory that Gou shows off is dedicated to the production of the iPhone 4S and its display. The reporter shows off the iPhone 4S frame and Gou says that ‘his’ factory is better than any of the production in Japan, Germany, the U.S. and elsewhere. They then move on to the motherboards, where Gou says that one section of the parts runs some 148 meters. The motherboard area produces 10,000 units a day.
Here’s the video:
There’s an additional video which interviews a few Foxconn employees working on the Zhengzhou plant. According to MIC Gadget’s translation the workers seem to be fine:
In the interview, one of the Foxconn workers said she receives two 15-minute paid rest breaks at noon and afternoon, one 50-minute meal period in each workday in which she work at least eight hours. And she earns 2,000-3,000 yuan ($316 – $474) per month. Another female worker who just got hired is responsible to do checking on connectors and tiny components to see if they are washed out, oxidized, or out of shape. The Chinese reporter then asked the worker whether her eyes get tired when checking the components, and the worker replied: No.
See also: Video of an iPad being assembled.
