Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler, yesterday tightened COVID-19 rules for workers at its factories in Taoyuan’s Jhongli District (中壢) and asked them to work remotely amid a rise in local infections.
The move came after one more worker at Compal Electronics Inc’s (仁寶電腦) factory in Pingjhen District (平鎮) yesterday tested positive for the virus, bringing the firm’s total to four cases.
“To cope with recent surges in local infections, employees residing in Taoyuan’s Jhongli District should stop coming to factories immediately and work from home instead,” Hon Hai, headquartered in New Taipei City’s Tucheng District (土城), said in an internal memo.
Photo: Chen Jou-chen, Taipei Times
Employees would not be allowed to switch between manufacturing sites, it said in a separate memo.
Shuttle buses running between factories in Taoyuan and municipal Taipei would be suspended, it said, urging on-site workers to practice social distancing.
To reduce in-person contacts and protect its workforce, employee restaurants would only offer boxed lunches and employees would only be allowed to eat in their cubicles rather than in public areas, Hon Hai said.
Separately, Hon Hai chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) said that the company would develop a platform for companies in its ecosystem to develop metaverse applications, a strategy Hon Hai has adopted for entering the electric vehicle (EV) business.
“Hon Hai has been known for its strength in hardware in the past, but the company has deeply involved itself in software development,” Liu said in an interview with news Web site TechOrange. “What we intend to do in the EV and metaverse areas is to offer a platform, or infrastructure.”
By creating a metaverse platform to integrate hardware and software technologies, Hon Hai aims to help solve problems such as poor voice quality during video conferences, instead using avatars to communicate smoothly, he said.
Aside from the metaverse, Hon Hai has identified quantum computing as a key technology that would significantly affect people’s lives, so the company is seeking to make inroads in that field, too, he said.
Quantum computing would help autonomous vehicles navigate, as traditional technologies would be too slow, Liu said.
“Traditional computing technology is not quick enough to make the calculations,” he said.
Quantum computing could also help find low-risk investments and quickly develop medical solutions, he said.
Hon Hai is striving to transform itself into a technology-oriented company, leaving behind its image as a manufacturing service provider, Liu said.
About two years ago, when Young succeeded Terry Gou (郭台銘) as chairman, the company set up the Hon Hai Research Institute, which aims to identify crucial technologies that would play important roles three to seven years ahead, he said.
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