Study of NUMMI Suppliers at the AC Workforce Investment Board
I attended the meeting of the Alameda County Workforce Investment Board last Thursday. There was a presentation by a company called Manex, which analyzed the viability of businesses that rely heavily on NUMMI for their business. Of course, many of these are in jeopardy of going out of business once NUMMI stops operating.
Manex looked at thirteen different companies with a total of over 1,200 employees. It was estimated that 1,050 of these jobs would be lost due to NUMMI’s closure. The purpose of their study was to develop strategies whereby these companies could adapt to the closure of NUMMI and find new customers that could keep their businesses going, keeping some or all of the jobs that they currently provide.
What this showed me is that there are plenty of other potential markets for the companies that may have thought of themselves as nothing but NUMMI suppliers. For example, those companies that make injected molded plastics could make products for the semiconductor industry, solar companies, medical equipment and other industries. There is a wide variety of manufacturing facilities in the bay area that need suppliers.