Further details of Harman closure revealed

Back in July, the employees of longtime Cheney electronics manufacturer, AMX Harman - the former XN Technologies, Inc. - received word that their jobs were on the move.

Cheney Mayor Tom Trulove was the first to report the news at a July 11 Cheney Merchants Association meeting.

"We had a call, the old XN Technologies, they announced to their staff that they would be closing their doors within the year," Trulove said.

That was all anyone on the outside knew until Sept. 2 when Darren Shewchuk, senior director of corporate communications for Harman provided more details on the move in a prepared statement.

"In July, Harman announced to its employees that it will move manufacturing and warehouse activities from our Cheney location to other existing Harman facilities," Shewchuk wrote. 'The transition will occur in phases and is expected to be completed by June 2017."

Approximately 50 production and warehouse employees are affected by this relocation. All employees will be given at least 60 days notice and will be eligible for additional benefits including job search services, counseling, and other support, the news release said.

Shewchuk did not indicate if employees would also be offered transfers, should they choose to move.

"Decisions like these are not made lightly," Shewchuk said. "We understand the impact on our employees and the community that we've been a part of for many years, and we evaluated all options before we pursued this route."

Sharp competition in the industry led Harman officials to relocate certain company functions in an effort to gain increased productivity.

The Cheney division was once known as XN Technologies. It was founded by former Eastern Washington University computer science professor Alan Hale and was an outgrowth of projects Hale and his students were working on for NASA's Space Shuttle program.

Hale, who passed away in July of 2012, sold the company in 2006 to the AMX Corporation in Richardson, Texas.

Generally, Trulove said, there's an "exit interview" to find out what a company hated and what they liked. But that had not yet occurred when the announcement was made.

There appears, however, to be an upside, Trulove said. "It looks like we're going to have a considerable amount of prime, Grade-A industrial space available."

"One of the things we've always lacked in Cheney is facilities," Trulove said. "Yeah, you can come, we've got lots of land and it's all serviced, build your own, but that's pretty steep for a lot of businesses."

This may actually be an opportunity, he added.

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].