back to article IBM to shutter Greenock x86 line after sale to Lenovo - reports

Mystery still surrounds one of the UK's last server production outposts in the Silicon Glen amid reports of IBM shuttering the Greenock site when Lenovo acquires its x86 division. According to local newspaper Greenock Telegraph, workers at the plant are bracing themselves for closure with manufacturing set to move to China …

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  1. Infidellic_

    Fact of the day

    There is a public train station on that estate called "IBM Halt" with a code of IBM and supposedly Operated by IBM: http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/stations/IBM/details.aspx

    1. Tanuki
      Thumb Up

      Re: Fact of the day

      IBM Halt? Surely "IBM ABEND" would be a better designator?

  2. Steven 1
    Megaphone

    Bullying and Bluster

    Surely the first King of Scotland will tell us all its just scaremongering?

    1. Irongut

      Re: Bullying and Bluster

      What would Kenneth MacAlpin have to do with it? He died in 858 AD.

      I presume you refer to Wee Eck who will never be the first King of Scotland no matter what he wants.

  3. Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

    I'm sure it will be ok even if the plant is shut...

    I'm sure the Greenock town council or MPs have a robust plan in place to keep you all employed.

    Considering the amount of people that rely on the IBM plant for their living - I can't imagine for a moment that they wouldn't have previously considered this sort of thing in light of the recent global meltdown, or have it factored into their economic contingency planning...

    Errr...

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: I'm sure it will be ok even if the plant is shut...

      The council will send a sternly worded letter to IBM.

      After all they are local councillors and IBM merely a rate payer - they will show them who is boss.

    2. Don Jefe

      Re: I'm sure it will be ok even if the plant is shut...

      What you've identified there is a very real problem for semi-skilled workers inside a gigantic company. They always think they are a crucial resource for the company. That's almost never correct.

      It has always struck me as odd the people working on assembly/production lines, surrounded by big machines and super fast conveyers, never think about how things were done before the machine they operate all day was invented.

      It sucks for the workers, it really does, but I often wonder if those workers had sympathy for telegraph operators or lighthouse operators or railroad brakemen when technology took those jobs away.

      As things stand, there really isn't much that a machine can't be built to do. But it's not a question of ability to make it, it's a cost issue. Some of the projects we are currently working on weren't economically feasible as recently as 3-4 years ago. But as scale increases margins fall and the easiest way to rectify that is by replacing Humans with machines.

      Alternatively, consumers could pay more, but that's very temporary. Most consumers don't realize the amount of work most manufacturers put into keeping prices flat. It doesn't matter who you are, or what you sell, any given market will only support a minimal amount of cost increases within a window. Everyone knows that and busts their ass to prevent crushing cost increases.

    3. Irongut

      Re: I'm sure it will be ok even if the plant is shut...

      Yes all 5 of them are very important to the council.

      I could have sworn IBM Greenock closed down about 10 years ago. It's news to me that anyone still works there.

      1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

        Re: I'm sure it will be ok even if the plant is shut...

        There must still be some outstanding rate rebate or inward investment catapult payments.

        Normally the plant shuts the moment these finish

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  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    MP for Iverclyde, Iain McKenzie, - who represents local constituents who work at the Greenock plant - told us he is "presently seeking to clarify matters" and "monitoring the situation very closely".

    Must be an election due for them to come crawling from under his gold plated rock and don't forget to claim your expenses !

  6. Erik4872

    New York's facilities are next

    IBM's original home state of New York is probably going to get hit too. They have a huge research facility in Poughkeepsie which may or may not get killed, and a chip fab in East Fishkill that will almost certainly go when they dump their semiconductor business. Pretty soon all they will actually manufacture is mainframes and UNIX boxes, so they don't need as much research or chip capacity for that. I thought one of the reasons they were keeping non-Chinese manufacturing facilities was for customers in government/military/intelligence who demanded US-made, US-assembled equipment. Maybe something similar was happening with this UK facility?

    They're well on their way to becoming Accenture/KPMG/PWC...and it's too bad. From what I've heard IBM used to be a very good place to spend an entire career. Not so much anymore.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    That's going to be IBMs last physical location in Scotland gone, with Edinburgh closing as well. When I started they had an office in Glasgow, Greenock , 2 sites in Edinburgh and 2 in Aberdeen. I know that most people already worked at home, but it's hard to believe there isn't some benefit to an office space for meeting colleagues and customers.

    I got my marching orders after 16 years, last year, and morale was already pretty close to rock bottom in my business unit. I've been able to find a variety of work since, but I don't see the opportunities being so easy to come by in the Greenock area.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Still in Edinburgh

      They have offices in Edinburgh... I think two now, but swanky glass offices. The old building was really awful inside but nice to look at outside, and in a really good location. And finally the tram is about ready to stop just nearby.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Greenock doesn't make stuff....

    Previous poster was right. The days of anything be made there are long gone. Using the words "workers at the plant are bracing themselves for closure with manufacturing set to move to China" demonstrates quite the lack of knowledge. No worker at Greenock works in manufacturing.

    IBM have been steadily retiring the entire site (now called Vally Park) for a number of years. They only remain in one big blue shed on the hill and the vast majority of people that will go are the people sold off last year in the 35000 bodies for just under half a billion dollars.

    Sure there are System x peeps around but the make up a smaller proportion than this article suggests.

  9. 2015ROADKILL

    Gone manufacturing

    Gone tuped into concentric

    Gone voluntary RA Wednesday 5th March

    Going involuntary RA April 5th

    X86 going TBC

    Not much left

    Greenock MP is there any still working ?

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Don't rely on Storage

    "Employees are fearful that with only a storage line made at the facility there will be no economies of scale to keep the lights on and, "this will eventually go too," said one source quoted by the paper."

    Announcement about the numbers of the cull in the storage division should be available in the next couple of days (staff get told today). It is not going to be good, sales / pre-sales indications are bad so this will cascade to the rest of the storage division. Commodity storage will go the way of commodity (x86) servers.

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