Apple Computer Inc is laying off 345 people, 45 of them in Ireland, where it employs 1,000, as part of a realignment of worldwide manufacturing and distribution activities. The moves are intended to support Apple’s aggressive new product plans, speed delivery of products to customers, and lower manufacturing costs. The final systems assembly currently done in Fremont, California will transfer to its Sacramento, California plant. All printed circuit board manufacturing will be centralised at the Fountain, Colorado, Cork, Ireland and Singapore facilities. The shake-up is intended to integrate manufacturing functions with distribution. The company will record a pre-tax charge against earnings of about $20m in its current fiscal quarter for expenses related to the moves.Fremont, which was touted as the last word in automated manufacturing in the mid-1980s, is hardest hit: 300 of the jobs there go and the other 400 transfer, and the once-proud plant closes in June.
