"Some of the experienced employees chose to retire". While this is true, there were 265 employees at the time of the announced closing and if there were 25 who chose to retire there were 220 who were not offered relocation. Trust me, they did not care to absorb our knowledge.
"Programs and blueprints had to be rewritten, as many of the drawings dated back 60-plus years and were not suitable for CNC tooling" WHAT?!?! Unless the SAE inch standard changed this year that is utter BS. A blueprint is a blueprint, and most of our drawings were already re-drawn in AutoCAD anyway. Still, the paper drawings did not have an expiration date ya know.
"In visiting the Marlin New Haven plant not long before the move, I was amazed by the old-world tooling, some literally being a centry old" I guess his GPS was broken on his trip to Marlin, because we were in North Haven, not New Haven. Also, none of our tooling was a century old.
"Unfortunately, manufacturing methods were labor intensive and thus expensive" OK, no argument there, but Marlin was turning a profit every year. Methods were labor intensive because we were craftsmen, not "button pushers".
"Some of the equipment and tooling was in the process of being updated at that time by the relatively new owner, Freedom Group" Again, total BS. Any of the process improvements and updates being done were being done by Marlin Employees. We were always updating and improving, something that had been ongoing since the Kenna family ownership.
"but I would submit that a large-scale change was inevitable, or the company would have eventually become bankrupt, or at least not profitable" Again, Marlin was "in the black" year after year. We were getting regular pay raises, and had the capital to purchase new equipment were needed. I wonder how the profits look now LOL.