CHATSWORTH : Company Celebrates Post-Quake Recovery

About 150 local employees were officially welcomed home to their Chatsworth facilities Wednesday during an NMB Inc. reopening ceremony for its earthquake-damaged plant.

NMB (USA), a Japanese-owned manufacturer of electronic components used worldwide in computer keyboards, audio speakers, aircraft machinery and power tools, suffered $15 million in damages from the Jan. 17 earthquake.

Before the quake, the company was experiencing a surge in business. This led, in part, to Jack Schulz being at his desk when the quake hit.

“I chose to work overtime (on the morning of Jan. 17) and arrived to work at 4 a.m. to meet an 8 a.m. deadline,” explains Schulz, an NMB vice president. “At around 4:30, I heard a rumble and felt very forceful shaking. Everything was pitch black. . . . I had to worm my way out from under my desk, where I thought I was trapped.”

Escaping his office with only a hand injury, Schulz ran outside to meet other employees who were counting heads and working out a strategy of what needed to be done with the company’s now crippled operations.

The result was a series of team emergency plans that included several company workers reporting that weekend to disassemble massive warehouse equipment, move it to facilities leased 20 miles away in Moorpark and reassemble the equipment for the 150 or so employees who would set up shop there.

“We had to be resourceful and maintain a positive attitude to get where we are today,” NMB (USA) President Marty Yamanaka told the 500 employees attending the reopening ceremony. Congratulating the employees for their commitment to the company, Yamanaka joked, “I’m convinced that, with its employees, NMB would be successful even if we went into the moving business.”

The ceremony was attended by state Sen. Cathie Wright, state Assemblywoman Paula Boland, the consul general of Japan and various local dignitaries.