Introduction
(A) Background of Foxconn
Foxconn is the subsidiary of the Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd., which is a Taiwanese multinational electronics manufacturing company headquartered in Taiwan. It is the world's largest maker of electronic components. Foxconn is primarily an original design manufacturer and its clients include major American, European and Japanese electronics and information technology companies. Notable products manufactured by the company include iPad, iPhone, iPod, PlayStation, etc. Foxconn has factories in many different countries, which together assemble around 40 percent of consumer electronic products in the world.
The reason why Foxconn become famous is that it helps Apple to assemble iPhones. In recent
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Based on the investigation, nearly half of the employees feel stressed while working (http://cn.nytimes.com/article/business/2012/11/06/cc06foxconn/zh-hk/?pagemode=print). If Foxconn employ more workers to share the heavy work load, workers do not need to work with the unreasonable high efficiency. Then, their high pressure can be released.
(C) Provide more training
By providing training resource to frontline workers, the workers are able to much more familiar with the technical knowledge of the products, and lower failure rate which may also reduce their pressure. For example, Foxconn can invite a specialist from Apple Incorporation, in order to introduce or demonstrate the technical knowledge about product manufacturing in front of the frontline workers. Therefore, the probability of making mistakes decrease, workers will not be punished and they can be more relaxed.
Although the above practice will raise the operating cost of the factory, the potential benefits can resolve the existing problems of the company that is the settlement of the worker’s strike.
How can the recommendation be beneficial to Foxconn
The suggestion we recommended not only minimize the potential losses that may incur. It can also improve the overall situation of Foxconn in management accounting perspective.
(A) Higher fixed cost structure
Hiring additional employees lead to an increase in fixed cost, while increase in overtime pay rate lead to an increase on variable cost.
Total Variable Cost = (Number of Workers * Worker’s Daily Wage) + Other Variable Costs
Apple products are designed in California USA and manufactured in different foreign countries such as China, Taiwan, Korea, Mongolia, and Europe which produce part of the devices, most of the raw material ‘Earth Minerals’ to produce these items can be found in China. Since technology has a lot of benefits in human’s life, the demand has been increase year by year which make business to expand and hiring more people in the company. From 2005 to 2015 the number of full-time employee’s has been increase more than 80 thousands.
Companies can raise their prices in response. – This method is the most common method used by employers. The extra cost for labor is passed on to customers in the form of higher prices. This method, however should only be used if the demand for the product or service is highly inelastic and there are no readily available substitute for that product or service.
The predetermined overhead rate is now considerably higher than it was. This will penalize products that continue to use the same amount of direct labor-hours. Such products will now appear to be less profitable and the managers of these products will appear to be doing a poorer job. There may be pressure to increase the prices of these products even though there has in fact been no increase in their real costs.
The following information has been provided by the Evans Retail Stores, Inc., for the first quarter of the year:
This decision could help the company to rebuild the trust of customers and suppliers for continuing in business. The workers would suffer a significant economic lost and could lose the motivation to work for the company. But there is a possibility that a positive view could emerge because they could appreciate the company’s efforts to keep them working there, and then cooperate to take the company to the next level.
The three possible solutions to alleviating this issue is outsourcing, hiring lower waged workers, or slightly lower wages and offer bonuses for meeting certain milestones. Outsourcing to China may not be the best solution because it would raise costs in the distribution channel, which is not a desirable outcome for the long-term.
Globalization has also had a significant impact on Apple's supply chain. The company earns high profits because it is able to produce its products at a low price and then sell them at a high price (Chakrabotty, 2012). In addition, the company has noted that it assembles its products in China because all of the components are made there this in addition to the low cost of assembly labor. Apple facilitates this by working with logistics suppliers like FedEx who can quickly move finished goods around the world via a number of hubs. All of Apple's products, for example, arrived in the United States in Oakland, California and from there make their way to the customer.
In fact, aligning training and education assistance to the mission and vision of the company will continue to improve the product and service it can offer its customers (Blanchard & Thacker, 2013). Companies such as UTC, Lockheed Martin, and Boeing realize they can gain a competitive advantage by offering education assistance; consequently, the cost is considered an investment into the future of the business. Competence to perform laser welding and helium leak testing is a requirement to build a myriad of
The multi billion-dollar corporation, Apple Inc., designs and manufactures some of today’s highest technological gizmos and gadgets. Among their best known products are the Apple and Macintosh computers, iPods, iTunes, iPhones and iPads. Apple is one of the most powerful and influential high tech companies in the world. The success of Apple Inc. stems from the innovation and visions of co-founder and entrepreneur, Steve Jobs, the excellence of the stylish, user-friendly products, and the ability to create innovative products that consumer’s desire.
Foxconn Technology Group, a subsidy of the Hon Hai Precision Industries Ltd. is one of the world's largest electronics manufacturers. It ranks 112th
Furthermore, spoiled work, damages, and accidents to equipment and machinery can be kept to a minimum by well trained employees, continued training helps employees develop their ability to learn by adapting themselves to new work methods, learning to use new kinds of equipment, and adjusting to major changes in work relationships and job content, also, through training, new employees learn to measure up to standards for performance, thereby satisfying their human need for personal growth and increasing their value to the organisation (Pigors and Myers 1977).
Companies such as Apple, Dell, HP, IBM, and Sony outsource labor and hardware manufacturing to a company called Foxconn Technology Group. Foxconn Technology Group is a multinational business anchored in Shenzhen, China. Some of the typical hardware being manufactured are, motherboards, chipsets, smartphones, tablets, and laptops. The majority of the factories are in China, three in Europe, one in India, and four in Mexico. Currently there are contracts to expand and build a new factory in Brazil. I believe that there are many ethical problems related to this example; first, the general idea of outsourcing mass amounts of labor, and secondly the mistreatment of
Labor relations in China have become more and more complex, labor conflicts have occurred frequently, and thus labor disputes have been growing with a rate much faster than that of the development of GDP in the past decade. They could become a potential obstacle to the economic development if not appropriately managed. The paper studies the condition of labor relations, and probes the profound reasons for it, and compares it across the world in order to give a description for it.
Learning and talent development function contributes to assess the employees’ capability and skills when recruiting people in different positions for Foxconn company. And also it design the L&D solutions and deliver it to the entire company. For example, the HR department in Foxconn can train the workers about their rights and methods for injury and disease prevention. Besides, in order to increase the productive and profit, the employees can learn more about the skills from the training programs provided by HR department. Moreover, the company may also select the talent person to their line management for contributing more innovation about management and productivity for the development in company. As the New York times mentioned in the report, many Foxconn workers attempted suicide or fell from buildings. HR department may also to offer the psychological guide programs to the workers as to teach them the good way to release the heavy pressure from work.