By Robert Herrington, Times Managing Editor
A Westfield manufacturing plant has informed the Indiana Department of Workforce Development (IDWD) that it plans to reduce its staff by 39 employees for an indefinite amount of time. This is the second reduction this spring - 35 workers were laid off in April.
Standard Locknut, 1045 E. 169th St. in Westfield, a producer of bearing accessories and precision-turned steel components, informed the IDWD about the cuts, which began on May 14, through a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) letter.
"Although the market for our products and services has been in decline since early January, we have managed to avoid severe downsizing by leveraging work rotation schedules that kept our employment numbers strong in spite of a softening market," Standard Locknut Human Resource Manager Amy Hardesty wrote in the letter to the IDWD.
Hardesty said the layoffs are because the company's largest customer has implemented a strategy to reduce its current level of inventory - and inventory that Standard Locknut provides.
"This equates to a sudden, unexpected, and prolonged decrease in demand of over 80 percent," she said. "The duration of this effort will be longer than ordinary due to the current low level of demand for their finished product."
Hardesty added that Standard Locknut has come to the conclusion that ordinary levels of demand for its products and services provided to the balance of its customer base will not be restored to reasonable levels anytime in 2009. The two immediate reductions in its workforce are the result of the conclusion.
"Although this action is expected to be temporary, it is indefinite in nature and more cuts may be realized if demand continues to fall," Hardesty wrote in the WARN notice. "The plant will remain in operation at roughly 45 percent of the 2008 capacity."
Standard Locknut's notice marks the ninth WARN letter received by the IDWD by an Indiana manufacturing company by May 13. In April, the IDWD received eight WARN notices.