When Justin Marlette was growing up in the Flint area, he saw one General Motors plant after another close. Now he’s working in the auto industry – but not on the assembly line.
Marlette, 25, works in research and development at Faurecia, a French auto supplier that recently celebrated the opening of its new $30 million North American headquarters in Auburn Hills where 700 people are employed.
“It’s given me the best opportunity I’ve ever had,” Marlette said.
Faurecia is one of about 200 research-and-development facilities in Oakland County and roughly 375 in the state that represent a resurgence in the automotive sector that looks much different from the factory-based economy of the last century.
Auto jobs: From the line to the lab
Oakland County’s Emerging Sectors initiative was started a decade ago by County Executive L. Brooks Patterson a decade ago in an attempt to diversify the county’s manufacturing-dependent economy and add high-end, knowledge-based employment.
Deputy Oakland County Executive Matt Gibb said the effort has been a home run.
“It used to be where the automobile was built,” Gibb said of metro Detroit. “Now it’s where it’s invented.”
Gibb said the top three drivers of auto industry employment locally are digital and information technology for automobiles, development of lightweight materials such as carbon fiber and the concentration of employees in the area that hold engineering degrees.
The IT jobs are a reflection of the level of computerization in cars today: “There are more lines of code in a Chevy Volt than the Apollo (space shuttle),” Gibb said.
Of the top 50 Tier 1 auto suppliers in the world, 40 are located in Oakland County, Gibb said. Gov. Rick Snyder’s administration has touted the net addition of 275,000 jobs in Michigan since 2009, and Gibb estimates 90,000 of those are in Oakland County.
Auto industry investment also means that cities like Pontiac, which had 27 General Motors manufacturing plants at its peak and now has one, could see renewed economic opportunity.
Challenge Mfg. Company, based near Grand Rapids, recently announced plans to build a 400,000-square-foot auto supply plant at the site of the former General Motors Pontiac Assembly plant on Opdyke Road, once known as Truck & Bus. The project could potentially create 450 jobs.
Gibb also pointed out that General Motors is making significant research-and-development investments in Pontiac. The automaker announced a $200 million expansion of the Powertrain facility on Joslyn Avenue last year that shifts 400 jobs to Pontiac.
State focused on auto industry employment
Michigan Economic Development Corporation CEO Michael Finney said the state is now viewed as having a positive business climate, a 180 degree turn from past perceptions.
Finney, 57, grew up in Flint, where his father worked for Buick.
“It’s a very different industry (today) with so many more opportunities for young people. It’s amazing.”
The state has moved away from offering tax incentives to businesses considering a move to Michigan, and now instead offers cash incentives when necessary if the state is not competitive with another offer, Finney said.
With the infrastructure that’s already in place, Finney said that Michigan is the most cost-effective place for a company in the automotive sector to open an engineering facility.
Michigan’s effort to recruit automotive business and related employment from overseas includes part-time offices in Canada, China and Mexico through the Council of Great Lakes Governors. Germany and the United Kingdom are among other countries the state targets for foreign investment.
“It’s more than just going after the companies that assemble cars. It’s the entire supply base and many nuanced pieces of the supply base,” Finney said.
“We’re really trying to think differently about the auto industry than we historically did. It’s not just about assembling cars, it’s about all the cool technology that goes into building cars.”
Finney said the MEDC is working to bring job opportunities and business development to cities hit particularly hard by unemployment, such as Saginaw, Flint, Pontiac and Detroit.
An employment program, Community Ventures, has assisted 2,400 people in the last year-and-a-half in finding work at a living wage in the state’s cities.
When recruiting businesses, the state identifies tracts of land that are shovel-ready, and they include former manufacturing plants and brownfield sites in cities such as Pontiac that are ready for redevelopment, Finney said.
“We are now out actively pitching to companies all over the U.S. and our targeted international locations.”
Foreign companies, Michigan addresses
Oakland County’s Gibb said the county leads the United States with its concentration of 982 foreign-based companies.
One of those is India-based Mahindra Group, which opened its North American Technical Center in Troy this spring after a $1 million renovation of a building at Crooks Road and Square Lake Road. About 100 employees are expected to be working in the office by the end of the year.
Mahindra is a $16.5 billion multinational company with more than 100,000 employees globally.
Early morning video conferences are held in the office to account for the time difference with India.
Rick Haas, the technical center’s chief operating officer, said vehicle prototypes will be developed at the Troy office before being shipped to India for manufacturing.
“We found after an extensive search globally that Detroit happens to very cost-effective, as well as having a high level of available talent and infrastructure,” Haas said.
Services needed for building prototypes, such as wind tunnels and test tracks, are available nearby.
Mahindra is also developing an Ann Arbor plant to manufacture its battery-powered GenZe two-wheeled vehicle.
“We have had, frankly, unwavering and outstanding support from all the Michigan government agencies.”
Haas’ resume includes 28 years at Ford, two years at Tesla and three years at Mahindra. He’s worked in Brazil, India, Japan, California and Michigan.
“Detroit’s the Motor City,” he said. “It’s highly appealing to people trying to do business in the United States.”
