BUFFALO, NY—Panasonic Corp. expects to invest more than $260 million in an assembly plant here to make photovoltaic cells and modules for Tesla Motors Inc.

SEATTLE—About 35 percent of the 29,645 machinists in Boeing’s Seattle industrial hub are 55 or older.

CHATTANOOGA , TN—Volkswagen will be hiring more than 600 people between now and mid-March to staff a new assembly line for its Atlas SUV.

WICHITA, KS—Spirit AeroSystems is spending $20 million to expand its manufacturing facility here, which makes composite subassemblies for the Boeing 787.

PORTAGE, MI—Medical device manufacturer Stryker Corp. expects to invest $130 million to build a new R&D center here.

SPARTANBURG, SC—Automotive supplier Magna International will build a new, $29 million, 230,000-square-foot assembly plant here to make seats for BMW. Scheduled to open in June 2017, the facility is expected to employ 480 people in the next four years.

MENOMONIE, WI—Drug device manufacturer Phillips-Medisize plans to open a new 80,000-square-foot assembly plant here. Expected to create 100 jobs, the factory will assemble high-volume, pre-filled, drug delivery systems.

WICHITA, KS—CNH Industrial’s assembly plant here has received a silver level world-class manufacturing certification. The 495,000-square-foot assembly plant produces skid-steer loaders and compact track loaders.

EVANSVILLE, IN—Systems integrator Preh IMA Automation (PIA) Evansville Inc. is building a semiautomatic assembly line for a manufacturer of automotive electronics. The assembly line, which will be delivered in early 2017, assembles, populates and tests automotive fuse boxes.

EVERETT, WA—Boeing’s 777X Composite Wing Center here marks a significant step toward a future in which much of an aircraft assembly plant’s work is done by automated machines and robots.