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.