ALLENTOWN, PA——Process-gases-equipment manufacturer Air Products' spinoff company Versum Materials Inc. announced last Wednesday it is expanding its manufacturing operations in south Allentown and plans to add jobs.

TEMPE, AZ——Manufacturing in the United States expanded in February at the fastest pace since August 2014, as factory managers reported stronger orders and production. The Institute for Supply Management’s index climbed to 57.7, the sixth straight advance, from 56 a month earlier, the group’s report showed last Wednesday.

BOWLING GREEN, KY——The Corvette assembly plant here will shut down for 3 to 4 months beginning in June, and then undergo a multimillion-dollar expansion and retooling for the production of its 2018 models.

EVERETT, WA——More than 1,800 union members will soon leave Boeing under a buyout plan offered last month, the first step in a continuing company job-cutting effort that’s expected to include layoffs later this year. The machinists union said 1,500 of its members applied for a buyout and were approved to leave the company. The engineering union said 305 of its members were approved and are expected to leave the company in April.

FARMINGTON HILLS, MI—Mahle Service Solutions has started a technology venture using wire harness data to let assembly technicians zoom to the heart of vehicle test failures.

DONGGUAN, CHINA—The Changying Precision Technology Co., which focuses on producing mobile phones and automated production lines, used to employ around 650 employees. Today, it has about 60 employees as a result of replacing nearly 90 percent of its human workforce with machines.

DETROIT——Ford Motor Co. last month announced that it was canceling plans to build a $1.6-billion small-car assembly plant in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. But, the automaker is still going ahead with plans to open two other new plants in the country: a $1.1-billion engine plant in Chihuahua, and a $1.2-billion transmission facility in Guanajuato. Both are planned to become operational later this year, supplying engines and transmissions for the US, South America, Europe and Asia.

WASHINGTON, DC——A Border Adjustment Tax sounds innocuous, but executives of major retailers warn that a 20 percent import tax would punish American consumers by raising the prices of electronics and other goods manufactured abroad.

WINDSOR, ON—An employee at Ventra Assembly Co. here is seeking permission to use medical marijuana during work hours.

MUNCIE, IN--President Donald Trump focused a large part of his campaign on the fragile state of American manufacturing, vowing to bring those lost jobs back stateside. However, a new Ball State University study suggests that outsourcing accounts for only a small fraction of the 5 million manufacturing job cuts in the past 16 years.