My Take | How China’s automated super factories are raising hopes for an economic revival

The plant’s automation ratio, or the percentage of work that can be done by machines instead of humans, is now at 85 per cent from about 70 per cent when it started handset production three years ago. For example, only 22 workers man a single 150-metre-long assembly line, which starts from raw main boards to finished products in boxes for delivery, because of the high degree of automated production via robotic arms and laser machines.

All the workers, who are probably in their early 20s, wear uniforms and special shoes on the clean and orderly factory floor. The environment appears a far cry from the days when mainland Chinese factories were known as “labour-intensive” sweatshops.