Robotics and automation could offer manufacturers a key way forward to operating in the post-coronavirus environment because of their ability to reduce workplace contamination and worker interactions. 

Automotive manufacturers are back up and running after months of production shutdowns following widespread outbreaks of COVID-19. 

Shared transit presents unprecedented risks as communities and businesses around the state reopen and people come out of isolation following a months-long shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Temporary workers were some of the first people to lose manufacturing jobs when the coronavirus started to spread into the Midwest, and they also filled in the gaps left by the highly contagious virus at essential businesses. 

People line up early at manufacturing plants to have their temperature taken by registered nurses who were laid off from hospitals in the chaos of the COVID-19 crisis. 

A new program aims to give frontline workers in the COVID-19 pandemic a pathway into higher education. 

ZEELAND — Office furniture manufacturer Herman Miller Inc. is laying off about 300 employees throughout the company’s global workforce in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and related restrictions.

Holland-based Collision Consolidation Co. LLC has acquired Stonewall Road Automotive Group, a Grand Rapids-based multi-state operator of MAACO automotive repair centers. 

Automotive suppliers in West Michigan will begin warming up the industry’s supply chain next week.  

Manufacturers are contending with the risk COVID-19 still poses to their workforces.

The COVID-19 global pandemic has pushed millions of Americans to work from their home offices, or in lieu of a dedicated workspace, their dining room tables and couches. 

The aerospace industry is facing unparalleled disruption and uncertainty emerging from the continued grounding of Boeing’s 737 Max and the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Office furniture maker Knoll Inc. has entered into a tentative agreement to sell the company’s manufacturing plant in Kentwood. 

As Michigan manufacturers shift course to join the growing “arsenal of health,” federal regulators have responded to the COVID-19 outbreak by reducing potential liability that typically comes with making medical supplies.

Automakers are delaying or rethinking the timing of new vehicles as production disruptions caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic linger into the spring.

Wolverine World Wide Inc. is leaning into e-commerce as the COVID-19 crisis drives more consumer purchases online. 

The vast majority of manufacturers are predicting challenging times ahead for the industry. 

MUSKEGON — Pace Industries LLC, which manufactures die-cast parts and previously acquired the former Port City Group operations in Muskegon, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this week. 

ZEELAND — Office furniture maker Herman Miller Inc. has filed a federal lawsuit against an online retailer for counterfeiting iconic designs from the company’s Design Within Reach Inc. subsidiary. 

 As businesses have been forced to pause operations in order to slow the spread of COVID-19, manufacturers are using the opportunity to explore and research new technologies that could change their future processes. 

In late March, two days before Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued a stay-home order for all state residents, General Motors Co. approached Esys Automation with a challenge. 

The fallout from the coronavirus pandemic may prompt a new spike in the adoption of automation among the region’s manufacturers and have a lasting effect on an already shifting labor market.

Just barely three months into John Walsh’s role as president of the Michigan Manufacturers Association (MMA), the COVID-19 crisis hit the industry with a nearly complete shutdown of the state. MMA, which serves as the lobbying arm for the automotive industry and other manufacturing companies, has pivoted to communicate and advocate in Lansing for members while also connecting manufacturers that can address the shortage of medical supplies with the health systems that need them most. Walsh spoke with MiBiz about his vision for MMA and what the organization can do to help companies make it through the current crisis. 

ZEELAND — Office furniture manufacturer Herman Miller Inc. is implementing a range of actions to temporarily reduce costs and preserve liquidity, including a 10-percent reduction in compensation for the majority of the company’s salaried employees.

As more manufacturers rapidly shift their operations to produce critical health and human service supplies in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, the state is offering new funding to help offset the cost of retooling. 

German automotive supplier Benteler Automotive Corp. is laying off more than 1,000 people across its West Michigan operations. 

ZEELAND — Office furniture maker Herman Miller Inc. anticipates bringing back up to 30 percent of its manufacturing employees by today to help support the company’s health care division.

Demand for the mobile computer workstations produced by Walker-based health care furniture manufacturer Altus Industries Inc. had already begun to spike as hospitals started setting up quarantine and triage areas in preparation for an influx of COVID-19 patients. 

Detroit’s Big Three automakers will shut down all of their factories in an effort to protect workers and the further spread of novel coronavirus, according to various industry reports. 

The automotive industry is scrambling to strike a balance between near-term execution and unsteady industry disruption from the novel coronavirus outbreak.