Goodrich’s new plant will focus on efficiency

EVERETT – Being just down the street will help Goodrich Corp. do a better job of supplying 787 parts to the Boeing Co., a Goodrich executive said Tuesday.

“It makes their production more efficient,” said Dan Castagnola, Goodrich’s vice president for Boeing programs. “We’ll bring the components into our site and build up a higher-level subassembly.”

Castagnola was on hand as Goodrich broke ground for its new 140,000-square-foot plant in south Everett.

Goodrich is one of Boeing’s key suppliers for the 787, providing, among other things, the engine nacelles and thrust reversers for the new Boeing jet.

But instead of building the parts at its factory in Chula Vista, Calif., and then selling them to Boeing, Goodrich plans to use the new plant to put the engine covers on 787 engines built by General Electric and Rolls-Royce, then deliver them directly to the nearby Boeing factory.

“They’ll make the signal,” Castagnola said. “We’ll deliver.”

Goodrich plans to open the new plant in September. About 80 people will work there, and the majority of them will be hired locally, executives said.

Goodrich began looking at Everett-area sites last summer, Castagnola said. The firm ended up leasing 9.4 acres of land from Snohomish County on 94th Street SW, adjacent to the building where it already assembles Boeing landing gears.

Castagnola said he found Snohomish County officials to be “positive, straightforward, very helpful.”

Roger Collins, chief executive of contractor Sierra Construction, said that of 10 projects his company has worked on for Goodrich, this one was “by far the quickest one through the permit process, to the point that our guys were falling behind the permit process.”

Reporter Bryan Corliss: 425-339-3454 or corliss@heraldnet.com.