Cummins Inc. plans to move the bulk of its Columbus, Ind. heavy-duty engine assembly operations to its Jamestown, N.Y. plant at the end of the year.

The company announced Oct. 9 that it would cease heavy-duty engine assembly in Columbus for the first time in company history and eliminate about 200 jobs. The production will be transferred to a more modern and productive facility in New York, leaving about two-thirds of the Columbus engine plant's 1.3 million square feet idle.
The consolidation of the Columbus and western New York plants will reduce Cummins' southern Indiana work force from about 5,100 people to 4,900. The company projects the move will save $15 million next year and $20 million annually thereafter.
The work force reduction already has started and will continue throughout early 2003, company spokesman Jason Rawlings said.
Reductions already are occurring through retirements, employees going to other facilities and people leaving Cummins for other jobs, he said.
The bulk of the assembly line move will occur during the plant's planned Christmas shutdown. Cummins delayed its traditional summer shutdown until Christmas because orders for heavy-duty truck engines spiked in the second and third quarters, fueled by the Oct. 1 emissions standards.