four corners sustainable futures initiative manufacturing deborah englisch, student, w.a. franke...

Four Corners Sustainable Futures Initiative Manufacturing

Deborah Englisch, Student, W.A. Franke College of Business

Northern Arizona University and

Richard Baron, Project Manager Arizona Manufacturing Extension Partnership

Navajo Nation Manufacturing

• Raytheon Missile Defense Systems • Tooh Dineh Industries, Inc. • Collectively employ 191 people on the Navajo

Nation in the manufacturing sector

Hopi Tribe Manufacturing

No manufacturers on Hopi land, or on any of their acquisitioned properties.

SWOT Analysis

• Strength (internal)• Weaknesses (internal) • Opportunities (external) • Threats (external)

Strengths

• There is a lower cost of labor. • Workers are available for assembly work.

Weaknesses

• Professionally trained employees are difficult to find.

• Native people with professional degrees generally accept lower wages in order to work on the reservation.

• Access to capital such as loans can be difficult to secure from traditional non-native banks.

• The leasing process is very difficult, time-consuming, and non-standardized across tribal lands.

Opportunities

Wages in China and across the Far East are rising, and may serve to bring manufacturing back to the United States.

Threats

• The slow pace of change is the biggest threat to encouraging manufacturing.

• Too many government and federal agencies involved with the reservation have conflicting missions and viewpoints.

Opportunity 1 (Navajo Nation and Hopi Tribe)

• Determine the types of manufacturing that tribal members want and proactively market the lower cost of doing business on Native lands to existing manufacturers.

• Consider the exchange of revenue generated from leasing land for jobs.

Opportunity 2 (Navajo Nation)

Develop land along the I-40 corridor for industrial development.

Opportunity 3 (Navajo Nation)

Require that a portion of products purchased by the Navajo Nation government be manufactured on the Navajo Nation by existing manufacturers or new start-ups.

Opportunity 4 (Navajo Nation)

Offer business and technical consulting to existing manufacturing firms to make them as successful as possible.

Opportunity 5 (Hopi Tribe)

Develop the Winslow industrial park.