Kodak Announces Manufacturing Capacity Reductions in U.S. And China.ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Eastman Kodak Company announced actions to consolidate its worldwide manufacturing operations Manufacturing operations concern the operation of a facility, as opposed to maintenance, supply and distribution, health, and safety, emergency response, human resources, security, information technology and other infrastructural support organizations. as part of its ongoing program to rapidly adjust to the accelerating decline in demand for consumer film and photographic paper. Pursuant to a restructuring restructuring - The transformation from one representation form to another at the same relative abstraction level, while preserving the subject system's external behaviour (functionality and semantics). program originally announced in January 2004 and expanded last month, and consistent with marketplace demand, current actions include: --Consolidate color photographic paper manufacturing for North America North America, third largest continent (1990 est. pop. 365,000,000), c.9,400,000 sq mi (24,346,000 sq km), the northern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. at plants in Windsor, Colo., and Harrow Harrow, borough, Greater London, England Harrow, outer borough (1991 pop. 194,300) of Greater London, SE England. For centuries Harrow grew foodstuffs for London. It is mainly residential and contains parts of the Green Belt, areas set aside as parkland. , England, resulting in the closure of an operation in Rochester by the end of October; --Close by year-end an operation in Rochester that recycles polyester polyester, synthetic fiber, produced by the polymerization of the product formed when an alcohol and organic acid react. The outstanding characteristic of polyesters is their ability to resist wrinkling and to spring back into shape when creased. waste and part of an operation that processes polyester raw material in the manufacturing of Estar polyester film base. Kodak will purchase finished raw material and will contract to have polyester waste recycled by firms with resource recovery expertise; --Reduce manufacturing capacity for consumer film products at its plant in Xiamen, China. None of these actions will impact Kodak's ability to continue serving worldwide customers with traditional film and paper products. Together, these actions will result in a reduction in employment of about 900 positions, more than half in Rochester. Charges totaling about $153 million, primarily related to asset write-offs and separation benefits, will be taken related to the actions. "These actions are regrettable because they impact our Kodak people whose performance has been outstanding, but they are necessary in light of the accelerated declines in consumer film and paper," said Daniel T. Meek meek adj. meek·er, meek·est 1. Showing patience and humility; gentle. 2. Easily imposed on; submissive. , director of Global Manufacturing & Logistics. "We will continue to move aggressively to competitively position our operations and adjust our manufacturing footprint The amount of geographic space covered by an object. A computer footprint is the desk or floor surface it occupies. A satellite's footprint is the earth area covered by its downlink. See form factor. 1. and capacity for the marketplace realities." Meek noted that Kodak is committed to strengthening its leadership position in the three segments of the imaging market: consumer, health and graphic communications, both traditional and digital. |
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