DEC may be about to order its first ever lay-off after its latest voluntary redundancy programme has failed to generate the necessary response and the company is facing demands that it make radical cost savings. According to the Wall Street Journal, DEC has been reorganising senior management and looking at further rationalisation measures after only 600 people out of a possible 7,000 have taken up the offer of voluntary redundancy. The general consensus on Wall Street is that DEC must consolidate its manufacturing and administrative sites to reduce the workforce by around 12,000. DEC’s auditors, Coopers & Lybrand, have previously criticised the company’s budgeting structures and a lack of involvement by senior management, and DEC has recently circulated a study that recommends a reorganisation of existing business units. According to Computer Systems News, DEC has also instituted a new management structure and created the post of US country manager, mirroring the more profitable Europe operations.
