CHARLOTTE, MI—Spartan Motors will build a new assembly plant at its headquarters here next year—an expansion that’s expected to create an estimated 55 new jobs. The 85,000-square-foot facility will make diesel delivery trucks.
BUFFALO, NY—SolarCity’s sprawling assembly plant here is nearing completion and will soon begin producing some of the most efficient solar panels available commercially. Capable of making 10,000 solar panels a day, or 1 gigawatt of solar capacity a year, it will be the largest solar manufacturing plant in North America and one of the biggest in the world.
STERLING HEIGHTS, MI—Due to low demand for compact cars in the U.S., Fiat Chrysler will keep its assembly plant here idle for another three weeks. FCA initially planned to stop production at the plant, which makes the Chrysler 200, from Feb. 1 to March 15, but the carmaker will now extend the break until April 4.
WIXOM, MI—Acromag Inc., a manufacturer of electronic monitoring and control products, has formed a new electronics manufacturing services division here.
HAGERSTOWN, MD—Volvo Group has installed a 5,000-panel solar canopy in the parking lot of its power train assembly plant here. The canopy will produce 1.3 megawatts of electricity for the facility.
DETROIT—A new study has found that factory robots have not hindered manufacturing job growth, but added to it. Between the end of 2009 and the end of 2014, 62 corporations with collectively the largest installed base of robots added 1.25 million new jobs to their payroll, an overall increase of more than 20 percent.
WASHINGTON—Orders to U.S. factories increased in January by the most in seven months, while a key category that tracks business investment plans rose by the largest amount in 19 months.