[DanBC]

If that is what he said; it's ridiculous.

Take a bare PCB, screen print it with solder paste (sometimes glue), run it through a pick and place machine (or a series of machines) then put it through a reflow oven. Once it comes out the oven you give it an auto test, and send it to have the rest of the components put on. (Some things will be damaged by heat, or can't be placed by machine. Examples include connectors on the "wrong side", but I guess massive machines have solved this problem.)

Note that in a huge factory you'd need few people for all the steps until the product finishes testing - most of it is automatic.

Even in tiny factory one person can keep a line running producing a lot of product by pushing a few buttons now and then, and moving boards from one machine to the next.

Having said that, a lot of stuff is done by hand; tiny coil winding and placement is one example.

EDIT: Here's a UK documentary where youth went to a factory in the Philippines. The tech episode is ep5. I don't know if it's available online anywhere.

(http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00s6103)