[article] Dell to pull the plug?

mike65

Surprised this hasn't been posted already.

From Tribune.ie

Ireland braces for Dell January jobs announcement
Jim McGrath

Michel Dell: the computer maker may be about to move away from Limerick

PC-maker Dell is set to announce plans early next year to relocate its assembly operation away from its Limerick facility. The Sunday Tribune understands from government sources in Ireland and company sources in the US that news of withdrawal of manufacturing from Limerick will be made public in January.


Over the course of 2009, Dell is expected to scale down its Limerick manufacturing before operations are relocated to Poland by the end of next year.

A Dell spokesperson in Ireland said it was "business as usual" in Limerick and that at this stage the operation of the plant remained "under review" as with all global manufacturing sites.

However, a senior source within the IDA has confirmed that it is bracing itself for "dramatic news" shortly. "A plan is being put in place to see where we can go forward from here and it is being treated with the utmost seriousness," the source said.

About 16,000 jobs within the mid-west are directly or indirectly linked to Dell.

also here

stevedublin

people like you talking down the economy are the cause of the recession!

thebman

lol yeah, this was on the cards for ages. I'm surprised it took this long for them to do it TBH.

DonJose

stevedublin wrote: »

people like you talking down the economy are the cause of the recession!

LOL all Mike said was "Surprised this hasn't been posted already".

Steve its probably people like you that TALKED UP our false economy, thanks for the laugh

PS : Steve how about supporting the Northern Ireland Bargains Alert forum

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055429431

Économiste Monétaire

I think the sarcastic tone of stevedublin's post has been lost on you.

ongarite

Intel Ireland is in deep trouble also. More redundancies coming around very shortly.
Too expensive and too old, not making anything that the market is buying at the moment.
Its death-notice has been signed with the China fab being built which does the same process/product at fraction of the cost.

Mizu_Ger

ongarite wrote: »

Intel Ireland is in deep trouble also. More redundancies coming around very shortly.
Too expensive and too old, not making anything that the market is buying at the moment.
Its death-notice has been signed with the China fab being built which does the same process/product at fraction of the cost.

Where are you getting this info from? I know someone who works in Intel and they were told (just today) that current plans are still to move forward with a major upgrade late next year (assuming things don't change dramatically).

DublinWriter

Mizu_Ger wrote: »

Where are you getting this info from? I know someone who works in Intel and they were told (just today) that current plans are still to move forward with a major upgrade late next year (assuming things don't change dramatically).

Apples and Oranges. The clean-room facilities cost Intel eleventy-millions to set up here. There's a lot of specialist knowledge involved in CPU manufacture and design. Whereas Dell on the other hand...

ongarite

Mizu_Ger wrote: »

Where are you getting this info from? I know someone who works in Intel and they were told (just today) that current plans are still to move forward with a major upgrade late next year (assuming things don't change dramatically).

I have heard about the so called upgrade for the last year and every time its never happened and the situation at Intel Ireland has deteriorated and people are being let go.
The reality is that Intel Ireland is not cost competitive and the recent dollar collapse has made it even more costly again.
The Intel process and supplier machines to build these atomic level chips has not been invented, yet alone tested.
If Intel Ireland were to get upgraded and I don't think it will, with pressure to keep the jobs in US and big things Israel has done to Intel, its at least 3-4 yrs away.

DublinWriter wrote: »

Apples and Oranges. The clean-room facilities cost Intel eleventy-millions to set up here. There's a lot of specialist knowledge involved in CPU manufacture and design. Where as Dell on the other hand...

I think some people have this idea that Intel is some super complicated place to work. It's so automated and procedural driven, that anybody with 3 months training could work in the place. Its just a big manufacturing plant.
All design and process work is done in the US & Israel.

Mizu_Ger

ongarite wrote: »

I have heard about the so called upgrade for the last year and every time its never happened and the situation at Intel Ireland has deteriorated and people are being let go.

The situation is deteriorating for nearly every company all over the world.

ongarite wrote: »

The reality is that Intel Ireland is not cost competitive and the recent dollar collapse has made it even more costly again.

The dollar probably doesn't help and energy prices here are crazy, but it's the corporate tax (and probably the new R&D incentives) that has been keeping them here.

ongarite wrote: »

If Intel Ireland were to get upgraded and I don't think it will, with pressure to keep the jobs in US and big things Israel has done to Intel, its at least 3-4 yrs away.

If there was pressure on them to keep jobs in the US they'd hardly be building a new plant in China (of all places).

I'm not in the know on all this, but while things are tough for Intel Ireland, they're tough for all tech companies. Who knows if the upgrade will really go ahead or not, we'll just have to wait and see.

ongarite wrote: »

I think some people have this idea that Intel is some super complicated place to work. It's so automated and procedural driven, that anybody with 3 months training could work in the place. Its just a big manufacturing plant.
All design and process work is done in the US & Israel.

From what I know, they get procedures and then work on improving them and sharing with the rest of the factories around the world and don't just blindly follow what they are given (I doubt if making that stuff is as straightforward as just following a bundle of reading material). I am sure they have all levels of jobs there, but I just don't see what the point of bashing them is. I am not sure if they are on the cutting edge of technology there, but they do seem to have a lot of expertise.

Apologies to OP for dragging this off topic

Bob_TG

ongarite wrote: »

The reality is that Intel Ireland is not cost competitive and the recent dollar collapse has made it even more costly again.

I'm not sure the dollar really affects Intel Ireland.

It's a capital-intensive site and most of the inputs come from outside the euro zone. All the output is pretty much shipped to asia for the next stage in the process. The euro inputs (labour, shell contruction and local services) are a relatively small portion of the overall cost.

I think the biggest challenge the Leixlip plant is likely to face in the medium term is facing up to excess capacity, as will Intel as a whole have to deal with. If this excess capacity continues (if demand does not recover) then lay-offs inevitably will occur. This won't be a specific issue with Leixlip, but will probably apply to the other fabs too.

andrewdeerpark

I have 2 very good sources confirm to me to 2000 jobs in Dell Limerick gone.

Expect the announcement after Dell's end of quarter Jan 31.

Very sad news expect a lot of bulls**t abour R&D jobs increasing however this is just PR smoke screen as Dell do not do any real R&D like HP, IBM they always viewed it as a waste.

It will leave Limerick with one big industry: UL.

MrLopez

andrewdeerpark wrote: »

I have 2 very good sources confirm to me to 2000 jobs in Dell Limerick gone.

Expect the announcement after Dell's end of quarter Jan 31.

End of quarter Jan 31? How about this piece of news?

Reports that two thousand jobs to go at Dell`s Raheen plant in 2009

The Sunday Business Post claims that as many as 2,000 people out of Dell`s 3,000 strong workforce in Limerick will lose their jobs.

Read More here.

andrewdeerpark

Fair point I am just saying Dell corporate HQ will not announce till after EOQ as they want a motivated workforce for the next few weeks.

However this leaking of the news will effect them is anyones guess?

sceptre

andrewdeerpark wrote: »

Fair point I am just saying Dell corporate HQ will not announce till after EOQ as they want a motivated workforce for the next few weeks.

I suspect you're right, the last thing they want is anyone jumping ship in January. It's not just EOQ, it's also EOY for them.

That's assuming the new year announcement is a given of course.

PYRO#1

Dell have implemented a pay freeze for the coming round of reviews, so no-one will receive a pay increase next year.

Also i reckon that redundancies will be announced in january in advance of the end of year at the end of the month.

The situation has changed drastically in the last 18 months, if growth had been maintained from then manufacturing in europe would be at capacity in 2012

1huge1

andrewdeerpark wrote: »

I have 2 very good sources confirm to me to 2000 jobs in Dell Limerick gone.

Expect the announcement after Dell's end of quarter Jan 31.

Very sad news expect a lot of bulls**t abour R&D jobs increasing however this is just PR smoke screen as Dell do not do any real R&D like HP, IBM they always viewed it as a waste.

It will leave Limerick with one big industry: UL.

Too true, Dell has really been the powerhouse in Limerick for a decade now, UL being another major important industry.

While the city and the region has other big employers like Vistakon, Analog and others the loss of Dell will have a dire effect on the economy of the region.

andrewdeerpark

Read this in the indo today:
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/business-consortium-bids-to-save-2000-jobs-at-dell-1587688.html

Is this a runner or have Dell HQ decided that manufacturing is a non starter in Ireland full stop.

Anyone know the figures involved?

If my history is right a similar plan was tried with AST and we all know where that is now, I cannot see this working as Dell want a large Asian manufacturing sub-contractor (like Foxconn etc) not a bunch of Irish businessmen.

andrewdeerpark

andrewdeerpark wrote: »

Read this in the indo today:
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/business-consortium-bids-to-save-2000-jobs-at-dell-1587688.html

Is this a runner or have Dell HQ decided that manufacturing is a non starter in Ireland full stop.

Anyone know the figures involved?

If my history is right a similar plan was tried with AST and we all know where that is now, I cannot see this working as Dell want a large Asian manufacturing sub-contractor (like Foxconn etc) not a bunch of Irish businessmen.

Once they started building the plant in Poland it was too late. We should have been planning for this for ages. We are going to lose alot of jobs next year - including those in dell - do we have ay sort of real plan, the govt release in Dcember was mostly fluff