DailyTech - After Four Years of PC Production, Dell Closes NC Facility

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Hardware After Four Years of PC Production, Dell Closes NC Facility
Brandon Hill (Blog) - October 7, 2009 11:15 PM

50 comment(s) - last by MrPoletski.. on Oct 12 at 6:00 AM

Michael Dell, Dell CEO

Dell says good-bye to Winston-Salem PC facility

While companies like Apple seem to be on the rise in this turbulent economic climate, Dell is looking at ways to cut costs by closing facilities and laying off employees. With profits on the decline, Dell is looking for ways to trim $4 billion in costs by the end of fiscal year 2011.

The latest example of this is Dell's decision to close a desktop manufacturing facility in Winston-Salem, NC.

Just over three years ago, Dell lavished nothing but praise on its newest 750,000 square-foot manufacturing center and bragged about how it had employed over 1,000 people. "There's nothing more important than exceeding our customers' expectations every time they interact with Dell. Our growth and investment in North Carolina, combined with the more than 2,000 sales and support people we've hired in the U.S. over the past two years, signifies our commitment to giving customers the highest quality products and services for the best value in the industry," said Dell CEO Michael Dell in May 2006.

North Carolina's Governor at the time, Mike Easley, also praised Dell's contribution to the state. "The employment and production milestones Dell has achieved in these first eight months prove that the investments North Carolina made to bring this facility to our state are paying off."

Today, however, there isn't as much back slapping going around. "This is a difficult decision, especially for our North Carolina colleagues, but a necessary one for Dell customers and our company," said Dell's Frank Miller. “The efforts of our team members there have been significant and we’re committed to helping them through their transition. Of course, we’ll continue to honor all agreements with North Carolina, Forsyth County and Winston-Salem.”

As a result of the closure, 600 employees will be let go next month and an additional 305 will be released by the time the plant is fully close in January 2010. Dell also notes that it will "continue to fully comply with the terms of incentive agreements with the citizens of North Carolina," likely due to the tax incentives the company received by locating in North Carolina.

Although it is closing the Winston-Salem facility, Dell still maintains U.S.-based manufacturing and fulfillment centers in Miami, FL., Nashville, TN, and Austin, TX.

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Tomorrow's headline

By JimmyJimmington on 10/8/2009 3:17:11 AM , Rating: 5

Tomorrow's headline will read "In unrelated news, Dell plans on opening a new plant in China."

RE: Tomorrow's headline

By FITCamaro on 10/8/2009 5:41:38 AM , Rating: 4

Probably. Another US town economy shattered.

But remember the recession is over!

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RE: Tomorrow's headline

By DCMerlin on 10/8/2009 9:07:16 AM , Rating: 2

FIT, you don't know how true that is. the state of NC, Forsyth County, and the town of Winston-Salem put up almost $300 MILLION in tax incentives to get Dell to build the plant there with the promise of providing 1,200 jobs over the next 15 years (through 2020).

Now the state, along with the county and town are left holding the (empty) bag, while Dell continues on without any worries.

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RE: Tomorrow's headline

By FITCamaro on 10/8/2009 10:27:41 AM , Rating: 3

Even in absence of those tax breaks, the local economy will be hurt because there's now 600 people without jobs(soon to be 1000). So they're all no longer spending money at local businesses which doesn't let those people spend money, and it goes on from there.

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RE: Tomorrow's headline

By Cypherdude1 on 10/8/2009 5:21:04 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
Tomorrow's headline will read "In unrelated news, Dell plans on opening a new plant in China."

That wouldn't surprise me at all. In fact, it's probably already occurred.

quote:
you don't know how true that is. the state of NC, Forsyth County, and the town of Winston-Salem put up almost $300 MILLION in tax incentives to get Dell to build the plant there with the promise of providing 1,200 jobs

The same thing happened in California when GM and Toyota closed their joint plant. Los Angeles, I believe, provided numerous tax breaks and they just shut down. These towns and states are competing against each other. Companies play them against each other to obtain the best contract. That's why companies can obtain the best tax deals and then pack up and leave if times get hard.

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RE: Tomorrow's headline

By Moishe on 10/8/2009 9:33:31 PM , Rating: 2

I can vouch for this. A guy I know is one of the managers at this plant. This region of NC has been hit repeatedly, mostly by the textile and furniture outsourcing. Banks have moved out. Tobacco's ability to create revenue is being sucked by the government vampire. NC is having a hard time all around.

On the other hand, I can't blame Dell for doing what it takes to stay afloat during this economy. They are, after all, a business. I'm busting my 4$$ to get a degree and keep my job.

Too bad, cuz W-S isn't a bad place to live.

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RE: Tomorrow's headline

By Cypherdude1 on 10/9/2009 5:33:03 AM , Rating: 1

quote:
I can't blame Dell for doing what it takes to stay afloat during this economy.

Michael Dell is a BILLIONAIRE and Dell is still making a profit. In my opinion (IMO), I believe Dell could've done more, tried harder to keep those 1,000 jobs. IMO company executives no longer have any sense of responsibility to their communities. IMO, they have become detached and out of touch because they are IMO in their penthouse headquarters a thousand miles away.

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RE: Tomorrow's headline

By MrBlastman on 10/9/2009 10:56:54 AM , Rating: 2

I'm not defending Dell, I think his decision is crap... but, do not forget the robber barons of the 19th and early 20th centuries. They did far more despicable things than you are reading about here, and did it for years. Not only that, but they earned far more money (adjusted for inflation) doing it too.

They were known for starting "wonderful community enrichment programs" such as:

a. Providing housing for their workers (how nice)
b. Providing a company store for their workers (very nice)
c. Charging rediculous prices at the store to capture their money back from their wages (swell)
d. Forcing all workers to live separate from their wives at times in these "camps"

and more! They make Michael look like a saint here. As bad as we may think it is now, it was far nastier and worse back then. Heck, there was a time where kids looked forward to their daily education in the textile mill! They got to learn about glorious subjects such as:

a. Chemical spills on the skin
b. How to tiptoe around dangerous machinery
c. What happens when you stick your fingers in the wrong spool of thread
d. How to avoid being a pancake

All while earning... a dollar! (remember that kid on GTA 3?)

These guys were filthy crooks, well, a lot of them were. I'm not saying a lot of the guys at the top right now potentially aren't (I am sure there are quite a few), but they really do make the guys that are earning the money nowadays look really tame and innocent.

It really makes me sick that Dell is doing this to NC and at the very least I feel the state should hold them accountable for the taxes--that is, unless they were naive enough to allow them to come in without making them sign a contingency clause.

But, alas, this is the free market system and they are trying to make a profit the best way they know how. Fret not though, as all your hope has not evaporated! Tell all your friends and family to not buy Dell products if you hate them as much as your post alludes and you too can hit them where it hurts.

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RE: Tomorrow's headline

By Moishe on 10/9/2009 3:06:24 PM , Rating: 2

Dell will pay penalties for bailing out early. The penalties were probably agreed on before the whole plan was put into action. Don't make the state or the people out to be the victims of Dell's bad economy.

What I'm saying is... bad things happen and we are not entitled to great jobs just because we want one. If the legal contract that Dell signed allows the company to exit, then they can exit. It might be a raw deal for someone in the end, but it's certainly NOT Dell's fault that the economy is bad. I would argue that Dell has to put its responsibility to it's shareholders before its responsibility to the community. Not that they should crap on the community, but the purpose of a business is not to provide jobs. Jobs are a benefit and not a reason.

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RE: Tomorrow's headline

By Moishe on 10/9/2009 3:01:31 PM , Rating: 2

I'm not talking about Dell the man. I'm talking about Dell the company. Let's not start attacking people because they are rich.

I agree that Dell the company could do more for the people of this county, BUT this is not Dell's purpose and I cannot fault them for sticking to their purpose. Dell's business is not a large margin business. They obviously did a cost/benefit analysis and found that it would be more beneficial to their shareholders to take the penalty than to stay open. It is not Dell's (the company) responsibility to take care of the economy. They don't run like the government where they can spend more than they bring in and just pawn their bills off on others.

It's easy to be an armchair quarterback isn't it? The fact that Michael Dell is rich has NOTHING to do with this. In fact, I could say that his wealth was created by his skill at making the tough decisions when they need to be made.

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RE: Tomorrow's headline

By Pastuch on 10/9/2009 3:11:46 PM , Rating: 2

You think thats bad?

Dell fired over 3000 people in Canada 1.5 years ago because our dollar went over 75 Cents U.S. Dell XPS customers used to get to talk to Canadians for support. Now they get to talk to people who can't speak english.

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RE: Tomorrow's headline

By Xavier434 on 10/8/2009 10:03:02 AM , Rating: 2

That is absolutely true. This is not about Dell playing the survival game. They are not in the red or even close. They are in the black and making a ridiculous amount of profit every quarter. They just aren't making as much money as they were back in 2006, but who really is these days? This is about them outsourcing the work which results in less work available to be done here in the states. If they didn't do that so much then that factory would have plenty of work to do.

Also, no one should be fooled by the their PR statements regarding how such things are for customer. The quality that the customer gets will not change at all. In fact, it is likely to get worse due to the increased outsourcing. The only thing that will change here is more Americans will be out of work and the Dell exec's bank accounts will get fatter.

It is decisions like these which are causing the recession to last longer and become worse than it has to be. Dell is not alone here. There are many companies practicing something similar. There is work to do. There is demand. There is money to be made. There are opportunities to create jobs and expand American business in a very profitable way, but here we have Dell outsourcing it all some place else and leaving thousands of families in a position of potential financial ruin.

Thanks Dell. You are a shitty business and those in power making these decisions are terrible Americans.

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RE: Tomorrow's headline

By FITCamaro on 10/8/2009 10:20:02 AM , Rating: 5

Talking to my mom about all this, she's told me this is exactly what happened in the 80s. Businesses scaled back as the economy tanked. But they got caught with their pants down then. So this time they're scaling back before hand so when things really get back, they're not hurt as much. The difference between now and then is, there's an ultra cheap labor force overseas to continue doing the work.

This is why corporate and personal taxes need to be slashed. We have the 2nd highest corporate tax rate in the world. All that does is make us ever less attractive to do business in. Spending all the money in the world won't change that.

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RE: Tomorrow's headline

By Xavier434 on 10/8/2009 1:17:32 PM , Rating: 1

Here is my issue with that idea. If there are a lot of big companies out there like Dell which are pulling in big quarterly profits despite the recession (even if they are less than 2006), there exists real demand solely created by consumers which in turn creates work to be done, but the company is still laying people off in favor of moving their jobs overseas then there is nothing that any tax break will do to help when it comes to those companies. When it comes to most of our medium-large to large companies, I don't see tax relief helping much. Their solution needs to be changes to their business practices.

Now don't get me wrong. I understand that not all businesses are like this right now. In particular, a lot of medium to smaller businesses are fighting tooth and nail (both white collar and blue collar) to maintain their business and some just don't have a choice. They are playing the rules. They are being fair, honest, caring, and are hard working but they just can't maintain themselves without lay offs. I feel for these businesses and I can see how more revenue from tax breaks "might" help them, but understand that just because such breaks could help them there are many ways to provide them relief while keeping the big businesses who are either maintaining themselves or failing due to reasons going way beyond taxes out of the loop. Give the small businesses some tax relief while still keeping in mind that we need our services which are also heavily suffering (health, education, police, etc). Screw the rest of them.

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RE: Tomorrow's headline

By Grast on 10/8/2009 3:17:06 PM , Rating: 4

Xavier,

If you are having a hard time understanding the business you need to get a business degree. Businesses exist for one reason and one reason only, to make a profit. I would like know how you feel qualified to judge whether Dell has made/is making/or will make enough profit. Dell is a public traded company. That means the company has a duty to make as much profit as possible for its shareholders.

Obviously Dell has decided the closure of the plant is more valuable than the loss of future production capability. If Dell later chooses to outsource to China, that is their right and it is NOT immoral do to so. It is business.

Lower overhead means more profit and thus higher stock prices and more dividends. In the end, Dell is more lean and profitable company. That is good for the remaining employees and good for the US economy.

As a previous poster stated, the lowering of the corporate tax rate would directly give incentives for companies to continue manufacturing in the US.

If you want to hate Dell.....hate them for poor quality, high prices, and unimaginative designs and not for their business practices. My main issue with your entire argument is this idea that DELL is making enough profit.

That is not for you to decide.....

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RE: Tomorrow's headline

By omnicronx on 10/8/2009 5:33:25 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
Obviously Dell has decided the closure of the plant is more valuable than the loss of future production capability. If Dell later chooses to outsource to China, that is their right and it is NOT immoral do to so.

I'm sorry mr business degree, but whether or not something is immoral has absolutely nothing to do with whether it is a good business decision.

Its a good business decision for smoking companies to advertise to children, but does that make it moral? I think not..

quote:
My main issue with your entire argument is this idea that DELL is making enough profit.

To the shareholders, is there such thing as making 'enough' profit? Is there such thing as enough profit for Dell executives whose paycheck/bonus is tied directly to how much money is made? There is no such thing as enough profit, everyone always wants more. This is why this point of view is always flawed, no its not up to him to decide, but when the answer is exactly the same every time(more than were making now), where exactly does it end? And what lines do you have to cross to get there?

Public perception is also a big part of business, and I have always found that this seems to drop as jobs are moved overseas.

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RE: Tomorrow's headline

By omnicronx on 10/8/2009 5:42:08 PM , Rating: 3

quote:
I'm sorry mr business degree, but whether or not something is immoral has absolutely nothing to do with whether it is a good business decision.

Ok bad wording.. but the fact remains a good business decision is not off in its own little sandboxed world in which their decisions are free and clear from public perception. Heck I minored in business and I took a class on business morals.

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RE: Tomorrow's headline

By FITCamaro on 10/8/2009 6:20:12 PM , Rating: 2

Here's my views on it. A large portion of Dell's business and many other companies business comes from the US. These companies are shedding jobs here to move overseas for the production. But they still want to sell their products here.

Eventually we're going to reach a point where very few people have any money to buy said products, regardless of how cheap they are. Of course I think we'll have to worry about our currency collapsing before that point is reached, but still. Companies need to realize that they have a vested interest in keeping jobs here because we are the world's main consumers. And while China is rising up in that regard, they still don't buy as much as we do.

Besides are (supposedly) American companies just going to say "f*ck you" to the American people even if on a global scale our purchases were just a small piece of the pie? I would like to think not. To me a little nationalism isn't a bad thing. The Japanese sure have a sense of it. American's need to get off this idea that price is king and be willing to spend more for a quality product made in the US. Of course that needs to be coupled with non-union labor and low corporate taxes as well as reasonable emissions and environmental laws to allow companies to make a high quality product here cheaply.

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RE: Tomorrow's headline

By rdawise on 10/8/2009 11:24:02 PM , Rating: 2

quote>I would like know how you feel qualified to judge whether Dell has made/is making/or will make enough profit.
Probably the same person that made you qualified to respond...

quote:
If Dell later chooses to outsource to China, that is their right and it is NOT immoral do to so. It is business.

This is debateable. Yes, a business will always do whats best for it's business (including shareholders if public). Yes companies have the right to do whatever is necessary to cut costs. Is it immoral depends on you take on Corporate Social Responsibility. Is it unethical no. Immoral? Maybe...

quote:
As a previous poster stated, the lowering of the corporate tax rate would directly give incentives for companies to continue manufacturing in the US

Not wholly true. Part of the reason most companies offshore is corporate tax. There are also operations costs, labor costs (probably the biggest reason), etc. I personally believe that even if we lower the tax rate, companies would still offshore. After all, the tax rate affects only profits, labor costs affect all aspects of business.

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RE: Tomorrow's headline

By MrPoletski on 10/12/2009 6:00:01 AM , Rating: 2

Not to mention that with every criticism of Dells business practices I can hear Intel quietly whistling to itself in the background somewhere...

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RE: Tomorrow's headline

By Pirks on 10/8/2009 6:48:47 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
They just aren't making as much money as they were back in 2006, but who really is these days?

Apple Inc.

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RE: Tomorrow's headline

By Moishe on 10/8/2009 9:38:40 PM , Rating: 2

Dell is not a charity. In a culture and an era of foolish overspending and short-term thinking, it sure seems to make sense that companies and people would be extra careful to ensure their future. It's a dog eat dog world and the economy is just going to get worse.

The government is a bunch of corrupt a$$hats for spending money like they are. They and those who depend on them for their welfare are utter fools.

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Economy side...

By CurseTheSky on 10/8/2009 12:35:04 AM , Rating: 2

...I'm not surprised. I loved Dell back in 2004ish. Sure, there computers were expensive and their success has a lot to do simply with marketing, but they actually built a good, competitive PC. 2004 was the last year I bought a pre-built PC, as I now build desktops for myself, my friends, and my family.

Lately I've seen a shocking number of issues with Dell products. From dead USB ports to monitors that die seemingly prematurely to several laptops overheating (without blocking vents or using them in a warm environment / direct sunlight), I simply can't recommend Dell above all others anymore. Don't even get me started on their customer service...

RE: Economy side...

By CurseTheSky on 10/8/2009 12:35:32 AM , Rating: 2

Ugh, that should read "Economy aside."

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RE: Economy side...

By MrDiSante on 10/8/2009 1:11:55 AM , Rating: 3

Although I've never bought a pre-built PC and the experience I have with Dell desktops is finding their USB ports superglued shut because of our IT infrastructure department, I do have quite a lot of experience with Dell laptops.

It's been pretty much the exact of yours - Dell's success seemed to mirror that of Intel's. I had major quality, speed, heat etc issues with the 2002-2007 Dell laptops that I interacted with; however the post-2007 ones have been nigh-flawless (NVidia 8400/8600 issues aside).

Recently, the quality and durability of Dell computers has been better than just about anything except the ThinkPads, and the Latitudes are about on par with those.

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RE: Economy side...

By sprockkets on 10/8/2009 1:41:59 AM , Rating: 1

Dell Optiplexes from the Prescott P4 generation were poorly designed. No intake vents from the front, and the only intake for anything was in the back, in the middle. Pretty much the intake for the processor fan was its exhaust. They fixed it later with vents in the side, but whoever came up with that first design was pretty stupid. About 1 in every 15 of those computers had their fan stuck on blow dryer speed loud. I couldn't understand how anyone could work with a station like that.

I never understood the whole super gluing the USB ports shut crap. As in, new Dell computers use USB peripherals anyhow; they can't just break all of them. They should just use policy to prevent USB drives from hooking up.

And in any case if you are referring to them gluing the computers from years ago (which meant using the PS/2 ports), can't they use their brain and like, turn off USB ports, lock the bios and lock the computer as they did where I used to work?

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RE: Economy side...

By jonmcc33 on 10/8/2009 8:30:08 AM , Rating: 2

What are you talking about? I worked on Optiplex GX520 and Optiplex SX280 desktops and they all had vents. In fact the fans were right in front of the vents and the heatsinks right behind the fans. These all initially had Prescott Pentium 4 processors.

You might be thinking of the GX280 desktops and earlier. The slim GX280s and earlier were poorly designed and their motherboards had serious capacitor issues. The tower desktops were not that bad as the heatsink was a thin fin design with heatpipes and there was a plastic shroud over the CPU heatsink to draw out hot air.

The fans were electronically controlled. If they were blowing full speed then either replacement (through warranty) of the fan or motherboard would resolve the issue if not a BIOS update.

USB port gluing would be rather foolish. You can disable USB ports in the BIOS and even disable using USB for removable storage through Group Policy.

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RE: Economy side...

By ajfink on 10/8/2009 4:05:27 AM , Rating: 2

Dell PCs have always been pretty standard-fare in terms of components. Prices were never tremendously good until HP et al. rolled in and forced them down.

However, laptop build quality used to be atrocious. The two years or so, on the other hand, has shown that Dell can actually build relatively solid, affordable, attractive notebooks.

But that's just one reader's opinion - and I think my next notebook will be an HP DM3.

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RE: Economy side...

By jonmcc33 on 10/8/2009 8:32:57 AM , Rating: 2

I have an old Dell Latitude D400 and D610. I wouldn't call either of their build qualities to be atrocious. In fact, I am quite impressed by their layouts and ease of use.

I won't touch HP because their customer support is probably the worst I have ever seen. Dell customer support though has always been great.

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RE: Economy side...

By RjBass on 10/8/2009 9:36:35 AM , Rating: 2

Wow, everything you just said is the exact opposite of everything I have experienced and heard about for the last 5 years. You must have just gotten really lucky this whole time.

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RE: Economy side...

By stromgald30 on 10/8/2009 6:19:28 PM , Rating: 2

The D400 and D610 are older generation laptops. I think the D400 is more than four years old, and the D610 is at least 3 years old.

In general, I think over the past few years Dell's laptops have improved significantly along with HP's. I'm not sure if it's Dell pushing HP, HP pushing Dell, or Apple pushing both, but the effect's been pretty positive IMHO.

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RE: Economy side...

By frobizzle on 10/8/2009 9:08:16 AM , Rating: 2

Having worked on many laptops, I always thought Dell was, at best, mediocre, in terms of quality of build. That all changed a few weeks back when I had to service an Acer laptop. The Acer contruction makes Dell look like top of the line. I have never, ever seen such a poorly designed and built machine in my life!

If you want a quality laptop, buy a (pre-Lenovo) IBM unit.

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RE: Economy side...

By mindless1 on 10/9/2009 3:16:23 PM , Rating: 2

Acer in some regions tends to target the low-end, it is not surprising their low end isn't good. Ever seen HP's low end? Pretty terrible, I can't even imagine what goes through the minds of designers when they don't even bother to put a hatch on to clean dust out of the fan, requiring a 100% strip down pulling the mainboard for such a routine task.

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I hope they consider other areas.

By SunAngel on 10/8/2009 6:25:15 AM , Rating: 3

One area I took for granted for a number of years was telephone customer service. Not until having to deal with a Dell repair was I turned off by offshoring entire departments. Not to offend anyone, but it can get extremely frustrating after navigating 10-12 voice prompts and then having to fight a language barrier coupled with a transfer to a different department followed by a disconnect of the call and having to redo the entire senario over again. I hope Dell comes back to country-based telephone customer service.

RE: I hope they consider other areas.

By cdwilliams1 on 10/8/2009 10:07:56 AM , Rating: 3

Ah yes, this is the price we pay for $399 computers. Low end components, non standard components (think BTX powersupplies), and off shored support. There's only so many ways to get the costs down. Sadly, this is the result of the market Dell chose to play in. They wanted to own the "me-too" commodity PC business and competed on price. These are the fruits of their efforts.

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RE: I hope they consider other areas.

By FITCamaro on 10/8/2009 10:25:37 AM , Rating: 3

Even Dell's business level support isn't that great. I spent 2 hours on the phone with them in college to get a motherboard replaced for a dead IDE channel when I told them at the start the IDE channel was dead and it needed a new motherboard. But no, we have to go threw their dumb ass check list.

But yeah I refuse to deal with people who don't speak English.

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RE: I hope they consider other areas.

By stubeck on 10/8/2009 1:27:09 PM , Rating: 2

Do you expect them to just give you a new part because you claim you have a problem? While you knew what was wrong, they don't know that, and have to prove it, otherwise everytime grandma called them up and said "its all broken" when the power cable was unplugged, they would be losing tons of money.

Having a different accent does not mean one can not speak english. Anyways, I just use the online chating tool instead of talking to anyone.

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RE: I hope they consider other areas.

By FITCamaro on 10/8/2009 6:23:06 PM , Rating: 2

If you can't speak understandable English, it doesn't matter if you technically know English. I went to a college with an extremely high international student population with professors from all over the world as well. I could understand all of them even with thick accents.

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Profit

By damianrobertjones on 10/8/2009 3:21:33 AM , Rating: 2

I wouldn't really say that it's due to the fall of profits, more like saving cash.

P.s. Apple sales rise. Another study suggests IQ numbers falling :p

RE: Profit

By Hiawa23 on 10/8/2009 8:42:19 AM , Rating: 3

Did it say Apple's sales has risen or profits cause Apple's profit should rise given what they charge for all of their products, & services. Not knockin em as it's Capitalism at it's finest, but just sayin alot of companies are looking at saving money, especially in the PC market, so, honestly I am not surprised by this. Not familiar with Mac as I have only owned PCs, but Apple should be doing great given their business model for the Mac & their I-everything line.

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RE: Profit

By jonmcc33 on 10/8/2009 8:56:36 AM , Rating: 5

You should familiarize yourself with a Mac so that you realize it's inferiority and that Apple has a lot of false advertising and spreads FUD.

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RE: Profit

By Pirks on 10/8/2009 6:52:30 PM , Rating: 1

Giving out such advices is not quite wise, since the person who tries Mac may turn out to be smarter than a typical DT wintroll and learn quite different things about Mac than you'd expect. Don't you know about Anand and how his trying of Mac turned out? You be careful next time with your advices jonmcc :P

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This will cost Dell quite a handsome sum of $$$

By BigRedNole on 10/8/2009 2:16:21 PM , Rating: 2

The contract Dell had with the state was a $100M recovery by 2020. NC is not going to back off that requirement. They will have to repay the incentive money up front, pay the $100M over the next 11 years, and risk losing all government purchases of Dell products.

RE: This will cost Dell quite a handsome sum of $$$

By bigsnyder on 10/8/2009 3:07:02 PM , Rating: 2

Yes, Dell will be in breach of contract and will have to pay Winston-Salem back the incentive money.

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RE: This will cost Dell quite a handsome sum of $$$

By bigsnyder on 10/8/2009 3:11:52 PM , Rating: 2

Oh, as far as government purchases, Dell really shot themselves in the foot for not discounting their products more competively. Lenovo was still offering better prices by far on better equipment to many government and educational agencies.

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U Shure?

By sprockkets on 10/8/2009 2:15:00 AM , Rating: 2

quote:
Although it is closing the Winston-Salem facility, Dell still maintains U.S.-based manufacturing and fulfillment centers in Miami, FL., Nashville, TN, and Austin, TX.

Are you sure TX is still open? I thought that closed around 2 years ago.

RE: U Shure?

By Havok423 on 10/8/2009 9:00:21 AM , Rating: 2

There is a factory in Austin still, but I think it's a server factory.

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What do they manufacture?

By bug77 on 10/8/2009 8:17:55 AM , Rating: 2

I thought all parts are made in China/Taiwan. Was that just an assembly plant or do they actually build custom components?

RE: What do they manufacture?

By jonmcc33 on 10/8/2009 8:38:26 AM , Rating: 2

Wow...

In case you have never been to a warehouse before (ever) then yes, parts are made in other countries but shipped to US manufacturing plants for assembly.

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