Boeing committed to Australian manufacturing

As Holden and Toyota are planning to close their plants in Melbourne's western suburbs, Boeing says its Fisherman's Bend factory is a key part of its plans in stepping up production of the 787 Dreamliner and making other planes. It has invested about $300 million in the site since the early 2000s and will spend another $70 million to ensure the plant meets 2020 production targets for the Dreamliner.

About 1200 people work at Boeing's Fisherman's Bend plant, which mainly makes wing flaps for the Dreamliner and 777 aircraft. The components are shipped from the Port of Melbourne and installed on Boeing planes at the company's factory in Seattle.

The Fisherman's Bend plant now produces 10 sets of trailing-edge wing flaps for the 787 a month, up from five to six in 2011. It hopes to ramp up the production rate to 12 a month by 2016 and 14 a month by the end of the decade.

Workers have also being redeployed to more advance manufacturing roles, such as operating robots that respectively trim and drill holes into the wing flaps — jobs which were previously completed by hand and took double the time.

Source: SMH