LYNNWOOD — The Boeing Co.’s major partners on the 7E7 could set up their own preliminary assembly sites near Boeing’s Everett factory, an executive said Monday.
The details are still being discussed, said Ren Nansted, the senior manager for supplier management for the 7E7 program.
But he said he foresees that the major suppliers will want to bring to Everett all the parts that will go into their sections and assemble them here, rather than "bringing in a fully stuffed section."
State and local development officials said they were excited by the idea, which Boeing has discussed privately but had not talked about in public before now.
"It’s these integrating jobs that will make the difference," said Bill King, who is the aerospace business development manager with the state’s Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development.
"It could be very big," added Snohomish County Economic Development Council president Deborah Knutson.
Nansted spoke Monday at the Pacific Northwest Aerospace Association’s annual conference, being held this year in Lynnwood. The development council is a co-sponsor of the event.
Nansted and other conference speakers said the 7E7 will bring a great change in Boeing’s relationship with its suppliers.
The company will let its major partners design more of the plane than ever before, rather than being "so prescriptive," Nansted said. "It’s not Boeing’s typical role to put that much responsibility on the supplier base."
The major partners also will be responsible for lining up their own suppliers, Nansted said. That means that "chances are, most of the people in this room will be working with the partners and not directly with the Boeing Co.," he said.
Boeing has organized two conferences to help its partners — companies such as Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan and Alenia of Italy — meet with potential parts suppliers. It plans a third such conference for North American suppliers this summer, Nansted said.
The key to getting 7E7 subcontracts will be "demonstrated performance," he said. Companies that have proved their ability to Boeing in the past will have an advantage in getting work with the company’s 7E7 partners in the future, he said.
Those suppliers could still end up shipping their 7E7 parts to Everett, however.
Boeing’s partners will deliver largely completed sections to the Everett factory, where Boeing mechanics will snap the pieces together in as few as three days.
However, it’s not clear that it makes sense for the partners to completely assemble those sections somewhere away from Everett and then ship them here, Nansted said.
That could result in the companies setting up shop in Everett, he said. There have been discussions about sites around Paine Field, as well as in some vacant Boeing buildings.
That could mean constructing new buildings or moving into existing ones, or simply taking over space Boeing now uses, Nansted said. "There’s nothing that has been taken off the table now."
Officials at the EDC say there already are 1.2 million square feet of vacant manufacturing space around Boeing’s Everett factory. Another million square feet could become vacant within the factory complex itself in the next few years.
For Northwest aerospace companies, that could be important, Knutson said. It would be more efficient for those companies to supply parts to Everett than to ship the parts overseas only to have them shipped back.
Reporter Bryan Corliss: 425-339-3454 or corliss@heraldnet.com.
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