October 07, 2009, 11:40 PM — Dell next year will close its desktop computer manufacturing plant in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, as the company tightens costs in a difficult market.
The move is part of Dell's ongoing initiatives to simplify operations and improve efficiency, the company said on Wednesday. The company plans to cut costs by US$4 billion by the end of fiscal 2011.
About 905 employees will be affected by the closure, with about 600 to be released next month. The closure is expected to be completed by January, the company said.
Dell's other manufacturing plants in the U.S. are in Miami, Nashville, and Austin.
Besides owning plants, Dell also gets its products made by third-party manufacturers.
Dell announced in January that over the next year it would move production of computers for customers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa from Limerick in Ireland to its Polish operation, and rely on manufacturing partners.
In June, Dell also announced the sale of its remanufacturing plant in Lebanon, Tenn. Dell said it was committed to the buyer, Genco Supply Chain Solutions, a third-party logistics services provider, for three years for the remanufacture of its returned desktop and notebook computers, servers and storage systems at this facility.
Dell said in September it had agreed to buy Perot Systems for around US$3.9 billion in cash, and intends to make the company its global services delivery division.
