RE: "...belated cutting of fat?"
The article below attempts to attribute JDSU's cuts to a form of "cutting of fat", becoming more efficient and less labor intensive. In 1983, $50B IBM predicted $100B in 5 years. They haven't reached it yet! Good companies constantly "cut fat." When JDSU goes from 29,000 to 13,000, one expects that all the "fat" will go, but all the cuts from IBM to JDSU to Toshiba are done to cut costs and eliminate cash hemorrhaging in the face of drastically reduced revenues. One also hopes that, considering the obscene salaries most top executives make, layoffs are a leading rather than trailing indicator.
"...and has now increased its total number of planned
job cuts to 16,000. Considering that, even at its peak, the company
employed no more than 29,000 workers, this figure is undoubtedly
staggering. However, it's quite likely that, like many other large-scale
layoff plans that have been announced, the impetus behind JDS Uniphase's
decision isn't simply an industry downturn, but also the ability to realize
increased production efficiencies. On the whole, the manufacturing of
optical components is highly labor-intensive, at least when compared with,
say, the manufacturing of magazines or plastic bottles. However, over the
past couple of years, there has been a strong, ongoing trend towards the
automation of manufacturing facilities, both with regards to the production
of "passive" components such as filters and couplers, and
semiconductor-based "active" components such as lasers and modulators. JDS
Uniphase has been among the leaders in driving this trend, and, given its
economies of scale and the scope of its recent job cuts, may be one of its
largest beneficiaries one the optical networking industry begins its
inevitable rebound." |
