Airplane designer and manufacturer, Boeing, has broken ground at the Sheffield Business Park site where its first European manufacturing facility will be built.
The 66,700 square feet production site, due to open in late 2018, will manufacture actuation system components for Boeing’s Next-Generation 737, 737 MAX and 777 aeroplanes.
The site in Sheffield will produce as many as 8,000 components per month that will be shipped to Boeing’s Portland facility in Gresham, Oregon, US, to be assembled into actuation systems.
The Sheffield facility will initially employ 30 people on opening, growing to more than 50 employees. This includes 19 manufacturing apprentices, who have already been recruited and are being trained at the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) Training Centre in Rotherham.
Michael Arthur, president of Boeing Europe and managing director of Boeing UK and Ireland, said: “Seven months after announcing our intention to build a factory in South Yorkshire, we are proud to celebrate the ground-breaking of Boeing Sheffield and welcome more Boeing employees to our company.”
The Sheffield facility is part of the company’s broader plan to grow in-house production of selective technologies. The Sheffield team will manufacture key actuation systems with improved productivity, enhanced production efficiency and reduced costs while maintaining quality.
Arthur continued: “Boeing Sheffield is further evidence of our long-term commitment to the prosperity of this country. We are grateful to the communities of Sheffield and Rotherham, as well as Sheffield City Council and the Sheffield City Region Local Enterprise Partnership, for supporting Boeing Sheffield and our growing presence in the region.”
Kimberly Smith, vice president and general manager of Boeing fabrication, said: “We are delighted to welcome Boeing Sheffield, our newest member of the Fabrication family.
“The partnership between our sites in Sheffield and Portland is a win-win for aerospace innovation and our global growth strategy, as we develop a new source of expertise and talent in the U.K. and connect it with a high-performing, growing Boeing site in the U.S.”
