Seattle — Boeing Co. will move some aircraft production work from its suburban Renton plant to its factory at Wichita, Kan., but the head of Boeing Commercial Airplanes said Friday that the heart of its operations would stay in the Seattle area.
Boeing will move its 757 fuselage assembly work from Renton to Wichita during the next two to three years. The move will affect about 500 jobs here, but the employees will be offered other jobs in the company, said Alan Mulally, president and chief executive officer of the commercial group.
Mulally sought to reassure employees and Seattle-area residents made edgy by Boeing's announcement two days earlier that it would move its headquarters away from the city where it was founded in 1916.
Boeing also has said it had considered eventually closing the Renton plant, built during World War II, and move its assembly work to its massive Everett factory, 25 miles north of Seattle.
Mulally, a graduate of Lawrence High School and Kansas University, was promoted Wednesday to CEO of the Boeing unit. He said moving Commercial Airplanes out of the Seattle area never was considered. Boeing employs nearly 80,000 workers in the Seattle area, most in its jetliner division.
The move is expected to have a minimal effect on the Wichita plant, said Dan Becker, manufacturing and quality leader for commercial airplanes. The plant already has 17,100 workers, making Boeing the largest private employer in Kansas.
Some 757 fuselage work will go to Italian aerospace company Alenia, which supplies parts for 767, 717 and 777 planes. Boeing hopes that will help it gain additional business in Italy, such as the use of Internet and global positioning satellite technology in jets, Mulally said.
The Renton plant assembles single-aisle 757 and 737 jetliners. Fuselage sections for the 737, Boeing's most popular plane, already are made at Wichita and shipped to Renton by rail for final assembly.
Under a similar arrangement, final assembly of 757s Boeing's mid-sized twin-engine plane still would be done at Renton, Mulally said.
He pointed out that Boeing had invested billions of dollars in Puget Sound plants and offices, facilities, and plans to improve existing assembly lines here.
"The most important thing that I want to stress is that the corporate and company offices of Commercial Airplanes are going to be here in Seattle," Mulally said. "The operations are going to continue to be in the Puget Sound, as well as throughout the United States and around the world."
Boeing's unions were wary of the decision.
"The movement of work and the transfer of jobs is hard on employees and it can be hard on their careers," said Charles Bofferding, executive director of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, the union for Boeing's engineers and technicians. "We are certainly glad the work is coming to a Boeing facility in Wichita. However, we will be watching the way the company handles the transfer very closely."
Mark Blondin, president of Aerospace Machinists Industrial District Lodge 751, the union representing Boeing's Seattle-area production workers. said: "While Boeing continues to examine the utilization of its assets, this union will continue to do everything in its power to protect Boeing's greatest asset the workers who made the Boeing Company what it is today."
Boeing also announced plans to consolidate about 3 million square feet of factory, office and warehouse space by the end of 2002, mainly at Wichita and at plants next to its south Seattle headquarters and in suburban Auburn, Wash. No employees were expected to lose their jobs in the consolidation.
The moves are a result of yearlong improvement studies to boost the company's competitiveness and efficiency.
"We are going to continue on forever to improve our operating efficiency," Mulally said.
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