Commerce, allies target Alabama auto sector growth

Alabama NewsCenter

December 2, 2015

Alabama’s auto sector is charging forward, with record-setting production and new expansion activity that’s adding more muscle to the state’s prominent position in a global industry.

Just this week, a new analysis showed that Honda’s Alabama assembly plant had an economic impact totaling $6.8 billion in 2014. A similar study this year focusing on Hyundai’s Alabama assembly operation also outlined that facility’s substantial financial impact.

Meanwhile, Mercedes-Benz is launching a $1.3 billion expansion at its Alabama plant to prepare for the production of next-generation sport utilities, while supplier growth across the state has been strong throughout 2015.

For more information visit Made In Alabama.


 

How to Engage with the Lean Community

by Jamie Flinchbaugh, Co-founder and Partner, Lean Learning Center in Novi, Mich.

Nov 30, 2015

While lean continues to evolve, it has already been invented. Because of that fact, no need to reinvent. There is plenty you can learn about executing lean from outside your company. There is no question that experience and experimentation are the best teachers, and therefore the nucleus of your lean learning should be your own efforts. You don’t have to learn everything the hard way, however, and engaging those who have taken more steps or even just different steps on their lean journey can be fruitful.

How you engage the lean community must be a good fit for you, as there is no one right way.

For the rest of the story visit Industry Week.


 

Mobile’s Technip USA eyes $31 million Alabama expansion

By Kelli M. Dugan

November 24, 2015

With an eye toward rebounding energy markets, an established Mobile company is looking to invest nearly $31 million to expand its Theodore operations and ultimately boost its employment by about 10 percent.

The city of Mobile’s Industrial Development Board recently approved 10-year ad valorem and sales and use tax abatements totaling roughly $3.3 million for the proposed Technip USA Inc. expansion.

David Rodgers, a project manager with the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce, said the reinvestment in Technip’s rigid steel pipe spoolbase along the Theodore Industrial Canal is intended to upgrade facilities and equipment in anticipation of construction bids and jobs “coming on board in 2017.”

For the rest of the story visit Alabama News Center.