Toyota Motor is accelerating factory innovation with a plan to deploy 400,000 humanoid robots across its global production bases. The Japanese automaker will spend 1 trillion yen (about 9 trillion won) to replace production lines with advanced facilities and will phase in robots at both its own plants (150,000 units) and affiliates (250,000 units). The humanoid robots are currently learning the movements of workers on manufacturing lines. The plan is to combine skilled labor, robots and efficient production systems to raise productivity at 60 plants worldwide.
Toyota's robot rollout is a desperate struggle for survival. Tesla of the United States and China's BYD have already unveiled blueprints for robot adoption. Underlying all of it is a shared sense of crisis among both management and labor that complacency without innovation means mutual destruction. In July this year, Tesla began building a production line at its U.S. plant capable of turning out more than 50,000 Optimus robots annually, with plans to gradually expand deployment to gigafactories around the world. BYD is moving quickly toward commercialization, testing robots for transport, labeling and inspection work. Germany's BMW has also begun putting humanoid robots on its production lines.
In contrast to the swift moves by global companies, the labor union at Hyundai Motor (005380) is running against the tide of the times. The union is refusing robot adoption, declaring that "not a single robot can be deployed without agreement between labor and management." It has the backing of the so-called Yellow Envelope Law, the revised Trade Union Act, which stipulates that changes in working conditions are subject to bargaining and industrial action. Hyundai Motor plans to establish mass production of 30,000 Atlas robots in the United States by next year and to introduce them in stages at global manufacturing sites, but the possibility cannot be ruled out that the union will obstruct even this.
Speed determines victory or defeat in advanced industries. If union obstinacy combines with policy misjudgment by the government, the country will fall behind in the race for global competitiveness, and national competitiveness will collapse in an instant. The union's selfishness and recklessness could end up bringing about the very contraction of employment it fears. How else can Korea withstand the high-speed advance of Chinese companies that have both innovative technology and price competitiveness? As President Lee Jae-myung noted in stressing coexistence with robots, saying that "you cannot avoid the giant cart," the union must change its thinking. The ruling party and the government, too, must break out of the reckless behavior of the mantis that tries to block a cartwheel, and start by revising the Yellow Envelope Law.
