New venture saves a dozen manufacturing jobs at Kodak

Companies cutting manufacturing jobs usually get all of the attention. Rarely do companies get recognition for saving existing jobs that could have easily gotten the chop.

After a year of cuts, Kodak Colorado Division in Windsor now has 1,600 employees, down from 2005’s 1,650 employees and a recent high of 1,850 in 2002.

But innovations in manufacturing processes will retain some jobs that would have otherwise been lost.

SPONSORED CONTENT

Select your Republic Services residential cart now!

In preparation for Republic Services becoming the primary provider of residential recycling, yard trimmings, and trash, residents should now select the best cart size and service schedule for their household needs.

Kodak recently shipped the production of its home media products – paper and ribbon for the printer docks – to a facility in Mexico. The line had about a dozen employees, most of which will be retained for a new venture for the company.

Kodak Colorado will become the first facility within the company to begin flexible manufacturing. The process will mean that the site will focus on production of items based on marketplace need and new lines, according to Kodak spokeswoman Lucille Mantelli.

“This is basically new with the thermal plant,” she said.

In 2004, Kodak Colorado received approval for a $40 million thermal media and inkjet plant. The Windsor facility is said to have beat out the Rochester, N.Y. site for the project, which included a 12,126-square-foot expansion to an existing building and a 4,000-square-foot freestanding facility.

The manufacturing shift at the site is a testament to the fast-moving world of technology.

“Because of the digital world, you have to move faster,” she said.

The thermal manufacturing crew will likely see a number of new products at any given time. Mantelli said the company has not yet specified which product line would be tackled at the Windsor site first.

As a product line becomes mature, it will be shifted to other facilities with Kodak Colorado picking up a new or heavily demanded line.

“In the future, we might not be the only facility doing this, but for the time being, we are,” she said.

The changes in manufacturing will not carry any immediate employment gains, but Mantelli doesn’t discount the possibility in the future.

“We would like to see that happen,” she said, adding that employment increases would depend on business conditions.

From a Northern Colorado perspective, 2005 was a fickle one for Eastman Kodak. After announcing a 30 percent increase in employee bonuses in January, the company announced it would cut an additional 10,000 positions from its worldwide workforce on top of the previously announced 15,000 cuts.

But the effect on Kodak was been relatively mild. Mantelli said most of the 50 positions lost last year were through attrition or early retirement. The site even had to hold a job fair to fill manufacturing positions – the national coverage of Kodak job cuts kept potential employees at bay.

It’s hard to tell if Kodak’s moves in manufacturing signal a trend in manufacturing in the region. The most recent numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau are several years old.

The data shows manufacturing employment in Northern Colorado on a downward trend in 2003. Total manufacturing employment in 2003 for the region was 21,020 – a decrease of 17 percent from pre-bust 1998 employment numbers.

While it is difficult to track current numbers, anecdotally the region still appears to have a number of displaced manufacturing workers.

“Most of the folks we’ve been seeing are in the manufacturing industry,´ said Tanya Tisher, an employment technical trainer for the Larimer County Workforce Center.

The county helps facilitate the Federal Trade Adjustment Act program, which offers financial and informational benefits to workers whose employment is adversely affected by increased imports.

Each year, the program has grown. In 2002, the county had 38 program participants.  In 2005, 319 workers were eligible for assistance, 148 new applicants and the rest carried over from the previous year.

Tisher said it is hard to estimate the current status of manufacturing unemployment.