Hewlett-Packard Co., the big Palo Alto, Calif.-based electronics manufacturer, plans to consolidate in Spokane a portion of a printed-circuit assembly division it operates in Loveland, Colo., in a move thats expected to boost a similar operation here by 70 to 100 workers during the next 18 months, says Liz Cox, H-Ps spokeswoman here.


Its unclear yet, however, just how many new H-P jobs will be added in Spokane. Thats because it hasnt been determined how many of the additional workers in the printed-circuit assembly division here would come from Loveland, how many would be shifted from other jobs at H-Ps Liberty Lake campus here, and how many would be new, temporary hires, Cox says.


It really is too soon to tell what the net effect will be, she says.


H-P operates two divisions here. One employs about 651 full-time workers and makes test and measurement instruments for the wireless communications industry. The otherthe one thats expected to grow soonemploys about 262 full-time workers and assembles printed circuit boards for the other Spokane division as well as other divisions elsewhere in the H-P system.


The production unit of the Loveland-based printed-circuit assembly operation is expected to be phased out during the next two years. The work that had been done by that unit will be performed at H-Ps Spokane operation and perhaps by another company that H-P will hire on a contractual basis, Cox says.


The Loveland operation, which currently employs more than 400 people, will continue to do other printed circuit board-related work, and likely will end up with between 100 and 200 workers once the changes are complete. About 130 of the operations current workers have been offered voluntary severance packages, and those workers have until the last day of this month to sign up for those packages. Until H-P sees how many of those workers accept voluntary severance, it wont know how many will be asked to transfer to Spokane, Cox says.


In addition to the workers who will transfer here from Loveland, the circuit-board assembly division here also is expected to get some employees who currently work in H-Ps other Spokane division, which apparently will have a surplus soon. H-P doesnt plan to hire any new full-time, permanent workers for the circuit division here. It does expect, however, that some of the 70 to 100 new employees in that division will be temporary workers hired locally, Cox says.


H-Ps test-equipment division here is expected to have a surplus of employees soon, because it currently is taking new products to market. When H-P brings a product to market, it generally ramps up employment to handle extra tasks, such as research and development and marketing. Then, as the company begins receiving orders for the new products, not as many employees are needed anymore, Cox says. The number of workers that the test-equipment division will be able to give up to the other division will depend on the rate at which orders come in.


Both the printed-circuit assembly division, which at one time was called the Surface-Mount Technology Center, and the radio-frequency test-equipment division are located on H-Ps Liberty Lake campus, at 24001 E. Mission. With part-time and non-division employees located here, the campus has about 950 workers, plus a varying number of temporary hires, Cox says.


The printed circuit boards that are assembled here are used by the Spokane test-equipment division and by H-P plants in California, Colorado, and Scotland. The division here has a pretty big internal customer base, she says.


Earlier this year, H-Ps test-equipment division here said it planned to hire as many as 50 additional workers. Those plans later were put on hold indefinitely in part because of adverse effects on H-Ps sales from the economic woes in Asia.