as for 2.
Employers exploit loopholes like cutting back on employee with min wage benefits causing back to square 1. Moreover the effects also cause employee that is not affected by the min wager also got cut in the process.

I've got Superman's FB and he keeps posting DAP/PKR thingy .. way to sense the business man preference over the election?

I concur with u, but the best time for BN should be last year.

Regarding the minimum wages, businessman will absorb the cost temporarily, then it will transfer to consumer, who suffer the most? Consumer. Most of the food products i've seen, price had been increase by at least 10%, i might be wrong in this matter

I understand why government urging to implement minimum wages, is to encourage company going for automation.

How to automate harvesting of palm oil? Use robots ah?

P/S whoever can design a practical automatic machine to harvest palm oil FFB, guarantee instant multi millionaire...

This post has been edited by gark: Mar 7 2013, 12:38 PM

Are you sure there's no such thing available? We hav Durian opener ald

What i mean is on manufacturing sector, not applicable on Plantation sector

Bro gark, are u working in plantation sector?

This post has been edited by yhtan: Mar 7 2013, 12:53 PM

Sorry for my negative mind set. Is it because of completing some "important" things like awarding some major govt contracts to you-know-who, clearing up past deeds, etc etc and thus the delay?

Any major govt contracts awarded in the past 6 months? If so, to whom?

I really hope selling MAS to one UMNO guy with govt subsidy on the jet fuel for the next x years WILL NOT go ahead!

Cheerio.

Is that situation currently being proposed? Can I get the link? Thanks

No.. not directly with plantation sector, but related to oil & fats..

And we also have automated separation of fruit from fruit bunch, auto steamer, crusher and oil presser... just not automated harvester.

Once the BR1M over, the public is happy................but in the same time, Sabah issue caused the GE date postpone. How to GE if the situation not stable?

bad news for BeeN

Not every manufacturing can be fully automated.
Also, automation can come with big cost which SME may not have the capability of install.
I give a real eg. (real figure)
A fullly automated machine cost RM5 million, vs a semi-auto or highly labour used machine (which both produce the same item) cost 500k, which one SME will/can go for it?

Also my company previously install some PLC related for auto-decision/process, when something wrong time, it is hell a big hassle/problem to find a right personnel out there to troubleshoot, aka not enough skill personnel in the related field. If using relay type (old fashioned), then it is easier to solve.

This some may not understand, so I give more simple eg.
A conventional petrol car, vs hybrid.
When a conventional car broke down, many mechanic out there can repair for you.
But if a hybrid car broke down, then the only option is sending back to original manufacturer.

So if invest in high tech time, especially in manufacturing line, one also must ensure we enough personnel, skill surrounding to operate as well as troubleshoot it.

It is when one really involve in the field, one will realise, it is not as simple as talk like
get rid of labour, use automation, solve the problem.
It reality it is not as simple as that.
Some labour job, although look easy, but if want to be fully automated, can be very costly and can be involved quite technical thing of stuff, some even impossible.

Take for eg. furniture manufacturing, how can be fully automated? Almost impossible. Every furniture come with different design, and constantly changing of design, a simply nailing process want to be fully automated?
Some said, can, yes, definitely can, use robotic arm, very flexible, can turn inside out, plenty of dimension. How much it cost? hundred of thousand up to million
How much to hire a labour to do it? Rm1000 per month.

Why manufacturing houses/MNC are in Asia region?
Because of cheaper labour cost.
If automation is a solution, then we should see massive manufacturing activities in developed countries, not in Asia.

Can janitor/cleaner in shopping mall/hotel being replaced by automation?
Can brick building, construction being automated?

There are a lot of "pain" faced by manufacturing line that many people do not understand until one really involved in it.

This post has been edited by cherroy: Mar 7 2013, 02:08 PM

No robot, train orangutan to do that

http://dinmerican.wordpress.com/2013/02/22...khtar-eyes-mas/

Don't know whether this is true or not.

AFAIK some tolls concession already awarded to some cronies last few months ago.

Thank you for the insight taikor cherroy
Let say for those MNC company, don't u think it is much feasible to move to automation?

Great. Thanks for the idea

MNC has no problem due to scale of sales and capital they have, but for SME, they do not have both the scale and capital.

That's why we do not see complaints from MNC regarding the min wages, as their profit margin is good, due to scale and unique product (which is not easily accessible by others or SME). Also their employee is being paid better than SME generally.

While many SME can be actually making profit due to so called "left over" business or peripheral product that do not interested by big corporation, whereby profit margin some even in single digit number.

Bare in mind, automation is always costly compared to labour, but it is the scale/volume that can offset the automation cost, whereby SME won't able to achieve.

So min wages will hit the hardest on SME.
SME may not have the scale, but SME contribute a lot to the economy as a whole.

Min wages, the effect already being seen, a bowl of mee rise at least Rm0.50, some even more, at least what I had encountered.
Who is the loser? Consumer pay more, saving value shrinking (including EPF),
While the lower paid that getting min wages is happy? Life could even more difficult due to rising cost.
The one I see is the happiest is foreign workers, sending home (their home country) even more money.

That is why they should start implement on certain industry and certain company (MNC) for trial.

One of the food manufacturing company i've seen suffer 20-30% increase in wages cost, the owner will definitely transfer the cost to the end user. Besides, rental nowadays also killing a lot of small businesses, prime area rental for ground floor easily cost above RM10k, i can't imagine how are those shop going to survive.

*cough*

These prime area ... who owns them ah?

Property developer and their buddies, that's why u can see most of the corner shoplot sapu by their own people