Conference 7.286::digital

                Nothing official, but I have heard that once the
        group(s) that are in it now vacate (soon?); the building will be
        maintained empty until some MANUFACTURING group (preferably part
        of the section of DEC which "owns" the site (which section is
        it?) need the space.  I got the impression that somebody doesn't
        want to give part of their "empire" (very loosely used), and
        that the spece didn't seem to be reasonably convertable to
        office space. (The building going on in the Lancaster area is
        supposed to be office type space.)
                
                /s/     Bob

    
    I think the Franklin Facility is owned by CSM (Computer Systems
    Manufacturing). I heard a rumor that the STRIDE group was going
    to implement a "factory of the future" project there.
    
    	- Ted
    

       Franklin = 86xx Manufacturing

    It's unlikely that CSM, or any part of manufacturing, will need
    the building. The floor space per megabuck of product is dropping
    faster than the company is growing, thanks to new technologies,
    the elimination of FA&T, Just-In-Time inventory, etc.
    
    As a result, it would seem reasonable that the site be converted
    to a facility for engineering or marketing. However, it is fairly
    far south on 495, so who wants to move that far from Maynard?

I think you'll find a good number of Digital employees who live south of
the Mass Pike. Franklin wouldn't be a bad drive for many of them....

Jim (Uptonite)

  A year or two I wrote a note in here, which I can't find now, asking what
was going to happen to the Franklin plant. The answer is that the group I
work for, Semiconductor Business Org. (SBO), is moving there next summer.
This is an engrg/mfg group, but not mfg in the sense of producing a product.
Major remodeling will be needed before we can move. The Franklin plant is
about half empty now.

::    This is an engrg/mfg group, but not mfg in the sense of producing a
::    product.
    
    
    	Explain, please,  how manufacturing can be anything other than
    producing a product.
    
    -Don-

    We receive chips... test them, at times blast a pattern on them,
    and then ship them out to internal DEC customers.
    
    In the last Plant Managers Monthly report, the move date was said
    to be 1 July 1989.
    
    

    Now this makes no sense at all. Here we have a plant, FXO, that
    is the prototype mfg site in that it has close access to I495, an
    attatched warehouse, many docks for shipping and receiving and a
    mafg floor perfectly designed for low volume work.
    
    Then we have LVM mfg in the Mill which has to be the absolute worst
    site for mfg in DEC today. Limited floor capacities, poor cube
    utilization, and multi floors.
    
    If a transfer from MLO to FXO were to happen it would be just inside
    the 40 mile relocation limit thus saving costs and it would not
    entail a major costly refit of the FXO building.
    
    Rich
    

    My facility, SPO, is using space in FXO for storage - sending
    trucks back and forth every day to replenish our on-hand
    material. Don't know how long it will last.....

    Does anyone know what groups are in FXO (or are planning to be in the next 
    6 mos)?  Is it all manufacturing, or are engineering groups going there
    too? I heard that a few groups from MRO where planned to relocate, but
    don't know any details.

    
    The group in LMO (semi-conductor I think) is heading for Franklin.
    The Middlesex News had a article last week about it.  The company
    plans upto 400 employees according to the article.
    
    gog
    

    last that i have heard (being one of the people affected)
    
    official move date for current SBO residents at LMO2 and LMO4 is
    December 1989.
    
    an architect has been contracted to plan the internal remodelling,
    i have not heard anything about actual work started inside it yet.
    
    jonathan