Toyota

While Fremont, CA, is not well known outside the San Francisco Bay Area, it has a place in history as the site of the first auto plant in the US to fully apply the Toyota Production System, 5 years before it was called “Lean.” It was the NUMMI jjoint venture between GM and Toyota. It resurrected a shuttered GM plant in 1984, rehiring 2,500 of its former workers, and successfully built cars for both owners for 26 years until the GM bankruptcy forced its closure in 2010, causing the direct loss of nearly 5,000 jobs, not including the losses in the network of suppliers that had grown around the plant. Solar cell panel maker Solyndra was then a short-lived hope for revival in Fremont, until it went bankrupt in 2011.

Tesla now produces cars in part of the old NUMMI plant, giving it a 3rd lease on life, and disk-drive maker Seagate is moving into the old Solyndra facility. According to this article, Fremont is now marketing itself as a hub for high-technology manufacturing.

I live across the Bay from Fremont, and root for its success.