New Boeing plan: Expand work here

[Chickadee]

The Seattle Times:

 

Boeing will expand its manufacturing research center in Seattle into a 900-employee operation. In this photo, one of two 25-by-90-foot autoclaves, giant ovens that bake composites to hardness, at Boeing's research and development center in Seattle. Boeing brought in Italian and Japanese engineers to learn the process, then immediately outsourced the production work.

 

The move, along with a parallel expansion of composites work at its Auburn parts-fabrication plant, is intended to bolster Boeing's internal manufacturing capabilities.

 

After many years of outsourcing work from its Puget Sound-area factories to external suppliers, the expansion represents a significant Boeing investment in the region.

 

Initially, the new center will focus on building preliminary fuselage, wing and tail sections of the 787-9, the larger derivative of the Dreamliner. Later, it will fine-tune the manufacturing methods on future jets.

 

The move could also presage some "insourcing" of regular 787 production work. A local industry source said Boeing, which plans to ramp up 787 production to 10 planes per month by 2013, is considering building some Dreamliner wings and horizontal tails in Seattle.

 

Boeing said that hasn't been decided.

[Argyle58]

Within the past month Boeing also announced that it will open an engineering facility in Oklahoma City that is supposed to employ 500 people.