Mark over at the Lean Blog has a different view on what Dell’s closing of their Austin plant really means. Though he confesses it is a emotional time for him due to his previous connection with Dell, he believes that the company is ‘crapping’ on the folks in the Austin area. He states that:

So what happened?

1. The knuckleheads running the place over-expanded their desktop PC manufacturing in an era when laptops are increasingly popular.
2. Dell got huge tax breaks from the taxpayers in North Carolina to build a new factory.
3. When capacity was not needed, they decide to close the factory in Austin, Michael Dell’s hometown.

Poor planning, poor execution, now they’re crapping on Austin and the people there. Where’s the sense of responsibility? Where’s the respect for people?

I can imagine that any closing of a plant by any company in any town would cause this type of frustration. Mark we hear your concerns. It is just an unfortunate circumstance in which Dell needs to make some hard decisions in order to become competitive with HP, Acer and others.

What is going to be very interesting is if they [Dell] can even pull this off. There are those in the tech. industry who see Dell having a going out of business sale. The hole they have dug themselves into may be impossible to climb out of.

What do you think? Can Dell survive in a climate of recession?

Comment welcome.

Full blog entry is here.

[tags]dell, loyalty, responsibility, blogger, austin, texas, closing, [/tags]