The first robot production line in Northeast China is put into operation in Shenyang, Liaoning province on Sept 17, 2014. [Photo/Xinhua]

First seen in the 1930s, robots for industrial production have been massively used in modern production lines. 

As early as 2011, there had already been sources revealing Apple supplier Foxconn's plans of replacing manual labor with robots.

A recent statement has confirmed that the electronics giant has already downsized 60,000 workers and replaced them with robots.

According to the statement, the robots are not only capable of efficiently finishing repetitive jobs but also can allow the existing staff to concentrate on more value-added work, like research and quality control.

Foxconn has previously said that they cannot completely replace their work force with robots, as the latter still cannot reach a required level of accuracy.

But the company still encourages other manufacturers to follow suit and predicts that robots will take over five million jobs by 2020.