A filtration division of Columbus-based Cummins Inc. will move a large portion of its North American assembly operations to a plant in Mexico to keep the business competitive, the company said today.

Filter-assembly operations at the Cummins filtration plant in Lake Mills, Iowa, will move to San Luis Potosi in November. The company also is considering moving additional assembly work to Mexico from a filtration plant in Cookeville, Tenn.

About 400 workers at the plant in Iowa will lose their jobs between November and March, Cummins said. Roughly 110 employees who are involved in other operations will remain at the plant in Iowa.

The consolidation, which involves assembly of oil and fuel filters, is expected to resulting in “significant” savings, Cummins said.

“The filtration industry has become increasingly price-sensitive in the past several years, and the recent reduction in demand has heightened the need for us to take decisive action to make our business more cost-competitive,” said Rich Freeland, president of Cummins’ components business, in a prepared statement.

Cummins filtration is part of Cummins’ components group. Components sales were down 41 percent in the second quarter from the same quarter in 2008, the company said.

The filtration division employs about 330 people in San Luis Potosi. It is part of a larger Cummins manufacturing campus that includes the production of engines and power-generation equipment.