MONROE — Washington state officials continue to work with the Boeing Co. and its site selection team, and are confident that the company will decide to assemble its proposed 7E7 Dreamliner here, the state’s business and tourism development director said.
"We’re confident with the prospects of the 7E7 in the state of Washington," director Peter McMillin said Thursday. "We continue to rally the troops, put good information forward and we’ll win this."
Local development officials continue to "remind Boeing of what they have here," said Deborah Knutson, president of the Snohomish County Economic Development Council.
But even if the 7E7 does land here, the Snohomish County aerospace industry will look much different in the future, she said, with more engineering and technical positions and fewer assembly jobs.
McMillin and Knutson spoke Thursday at an open house organized by the development council to spotlight business opportunities in the eastern Snohomish County towns of Granite Falls, Lake Stevens, Monroe, Snohomish and Sultan.
Speaking in Seattle on Monday, Boeing Chairman Phil Condit said he has noticed a change in Washington’s business climate.
"Some real progress has been made, no question about it," Condit told reporters after speaking at the University of Washington Business School.
That’s gratifying, McMillin said. The Legislature tackled a number of business issues in the last session, he said, including unemployment insurance and workers’ compensation reform, and passing a gasoline tax to improve roads.
"This is all important, not only to keep Big Deals USA, but also for small businesses, too," McMillin said.
However, Condit stressed that the state needs to continue to work on streamlining the permit processing, addressing "how do you do it, and how do you do it efficiently."
McMillin agreed, noting that the new state Office of Permit Regulation was working with the Department of Ecology and other agencies to do just that.
State officials are promoting both Everett and Moses Lake, Knutson said, but as far as she’s concerned, "the Everett site is the best."
The development council worked with Edmonds and Everett community colleges to develop materials science programs that will train some of the workers who could end up building the 7E7 out of composite materials, she said.
That program received $200,000 in state funds last week. And on Thursday, Congress gave final approval to another $750,000, U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell announced.
The training program "will help Northwest workers continue to be leaders in aviation manufacturing technologies," said Cantwell, D-Wash. "It is my hope that this center will help to strengthen Washington state’s economy and provide new job opportunities in many different industries."
Working with composites requires fundamentally new skills, Knutson said. The local aerospace industry would change at a fundamental level, too, she said.
Instead of spending weeks putting together millions of parts to build a 747, Boeing workers would spend days putting together hundreds of parts. That means a much smaller workforce than Boeing has had in the past, Knutson said.
While the 7E7 would mean fewer job opportunities with Boeing, "there will still be many, many employees attached to the risk-sharing partners here," Knutson said. Those Boeing partners will likely set up plants of their own, where they will assemble the sections.
Those will be largely engineering and technical jobs, she said. Boeing’s major suppliers will focus on the final assembly of their components, plus engineering and testing. They’ll farm out fabrication.
Knutson said the development council is working to ensure local parts fabricators have the chance to compete for 7E7 subcontracts.
Reporter Bryan Corliss:
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