MEXICO CITY—GM will invest $691 million to expand its Mexican operations, including engine assembly plant in Toluca.

BEIJING—Foxconn Technology is on track with its goal to a create a “million robot army,” and it already has 20,000 robots in its factories.

ARDEN, NC—Tutco Inc. will expand its assembly plant here, adding 90 jobs and spending more than $500,000 on capital investments over three years. Tutco manufacturers open-coil heating elements.

Manufacturers, appliance designers and engineers are seeing viability in renewable energy offerings and also for metal welding equipment for renewable energy applications ranging from solar panels to wind turbine components.

MINNEAPOLIS—Despatch Industries, a manufacturer of industrial ovens and furnaces, has reduced lead times by 50 percent after implementing a kanban system and other lean methodologies.

CHATTANOOGA, TN—Chattanooga is finding itself in the center of an increasingly pitched battle over unionizing Volkswagen’s assembly plant.

ACWORTH, GA—Automotive supplier Inalfa Roof Systems will open a $17.1 million assembly plant here that’s expected to create 300 jobs.

WASHINGTON—Orders for airplanes, computers and other long-lasting durable goods rose more than expected in May—3.6 percent—the third increase in four months and a sign of strengthening in the vital manufacturing sector.

EVANSVILLE, IN—Systems integrator Evana Automation has received a multiyear contract from a Tier 1 automotive supplier to provide six custom assembly and test systems that will simplify the production of automobile steering assemblies.

ERIE, PA—An all-day bargaining session failed to produce an agreement aimed at heading off the elimination of 950 union jobs at GE’s century-old locomotive manufacturing plant in northwestern Pennsylvania.