Paul Mozur, and Eva Dou write that things made in China will soon increasingly be made by robots rather than cheap Chinese labour:

• Robots have long had the ability to manufacture the items that are currently made by human beings.
• Yet factories have continued to use manual labour in part because most items are only manufactured for around 18 months and reprogramming or purchasing robots after each product cycle is arduous.
• Robots are also problematic because while humans can be laid off during downturns, robots can’t.
• Moreover until recently it was cheaper to just have a human rather than a robot do the job.
• This is changing. As China’s population ages, and the youth become increasingly reluctant to engage in manual labour wages have shot up.
• Most think that in an era of automated factories production will shift back to the United States, however since the rest of the product supply chain still resides in China, it is likely that robot manufacturing will remain in China.

Read more about the items that are being manufactured by robots, the designs of the latest robots, and more over here.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Via: Marginal Revolution