Month: April 2014

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This DIY synthesizer cost $70 to build and it sounds amazing

What could you build with a budget of $70? For George Gleixner, it’s a homemade battery-powered synthesizer. One that’s constructed using a circuit bent a children’s Hing Hon EK-001 squarewave keyboard no less. What’s circuit bending you ask? Well,…

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Toyota moving US headquarters to Plano, Texas

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Toyota headquarters in Torrance, CA

It’s official, Toyota is relocating its US operations to Plano, TX. And it won’t be a symbolic ‘all ranch and no cattle’ gesture – the Japanese automaker, whose headquarters have been in California since 1957, has decided to base nearly all of its operations in the Lone Star State, including much of its engineering, finance and sales and marketing teams.

The move, which will see the establishment of a new headquarters campus in the Dallas suburb will not only affect employees at the company’s current Torrance, CA Toyota Motor Sales USA campus, it will also touch the lives of thousands of employees at the company’s other operations, including 1,000 workers at Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America in Erlanger, KY and some New York-based staff as well. The Toyota Technical Center in Ann Arbor, MI is not facing relocation, however, and it actually stands to gain responsibilities as Toyota overhauls its US org chart. Toyota says that its reorganization will affect about 4,000 employees in total.

According to Automotive News, while Toyota is adopting an "’everyone is invited’ stance for the relocation," some attrition is expected from employees who aren’t interested in relocating southward from the Golden State. For its part, the automaker is reportedly making expenses-paid visits to Plano available to full-time staffers and spouses to help them make the relocation decision, as well as a lump-sump payment if they decide to go through with the move.

The move is expected to realize massive cost savings for Toyota, including in areas of taxation, real estate and employee cost of living. It is also expected to allow for consolidation in areas like human resources, information technologies, legal and accounting. Critically, the move will put the company closer to its North American manufacturing base, which has been increasingly concentrated in southern states, including Texas.

According to North American CEO Jim Lentz, "With our major North American business affiliates and leaders together in one location for the first time, we will be better equipped to speed decision making, share best practices, and leverage the combined strength of our employees."

Most Toyota employee are not expected to make the move to the new campus (said to be envisioned in the style of Apple’s eco-friendly Silicon Valley campus) until late 2017, but the first employees will begin relocating to Plano this fall, working out of a temporary location until the new headquarters is ready. Groundbreaking for the new facilities is slated to happen in the third quarter of this year, with construction expected to take a further two or more years.

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Toyota moving US headquarters to Plano, Texas originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 28 Apr 2014 14:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google May Get Into Wi-Fi And Cellphone Services

Google may be expanding its provision of public Wi-Fi according to planning documents for its high-speed broadband service. There’s even speculation it could get into cellphone services. The revelation comes in a planning document sent to officials in 34 cities which have shown an interest in getting Google Fiber. That’s a program in which Google […]

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