The Making of a Motherboard at ECS

sheiky writes "Hardcoreware.net has posted a look at the manufacturing process of a motherboard at a new ECS factory in Shen Zhen. Unlike most factories, they build boards from the ground up at one location, starting with the PCB all the way to a finished product. They also talk a little bit about the working conditions they witnessed in China."

Chinese work conditions

[seanadams.com]

ECS uses the "Grape System" to remind their employees not to slack off. For each day, there is a grape. Green means they had a perfect day, with no problems with work or otherwise. If an employee slacks off or shows up late for work, they get a red grape.

And I toil for what?!? Not so much as a raisin!

Re:Chinese work conditions

[Herkum01]

I love thier last comment about the workers, "I think ECS' employees take great pride in their hard work, even though they are getting paid very little in comparison to bloated unionized factories". There is not a bit of biase there I tell ya!

Re:Was this article written by the Chinese?

[WilliamSChips]

You have committed thoughtcrime. Unions doubleplusungood. -Republican Administration

Re:Was this article written by the Chinese?

[thejam]

Here, here! I nearly lost my lunch at the suggestion that taking lower wages for longer hours and with a public ridicule "grape" system is somehow more efficient? For whom? Your therapist?

Re:Unions

[pete-classic]

China is still Communist, right? So the workers control the means of production. So who the hell is the union going to fight?

-Peter

ECS Extreme

[llZENll]

"Once packaged, random boards are put through shock tests to make sure their lot will survive the shipping process. The number of boards that go through this testing procedure is higher for high end products such as ECS' "EXTREME" lineup."

So if you buy an EXTREME board and get pissed at your computer, you can throw it a little harder against the wall. Cool!

Re:Was this article written by the Chinese?

[goofyheadedpunk]

So you didn't have to be a janitor?

Just like in America

[quokkapox]

Only the really low wages of China make labor-intensive manual assembly feasible.

It's great here in America, we have these "Wal*Mart" stores everywhere... the "employees" are automated here too. When they wear out (or get sick), new ones automatically sign up to take their place. You don't have to worry about repairing the broken employees (i.e. health care); there's a constant supply of new ones. I'm not sure what happens to the worn-out ones; I think the government has some sort of program for recycling them.

They stock the shelves better than robots could (usually), and some of them can even answer natural language queries (in english and spanish) about the location of inventory.

Re:Just like in America

[Sponge Bath]

I think the government has some sort of program for recycling them.

Tuesday is Soylent Green day...

Union Mafia bastards!

[mobby_6kl]

Since everyone else here decided to skip all the boring talk about the technology involved and jump right into a flamewar, I hereby submit my contribution.