Wichita ? Scott Strode, the new head of Boeing’s Wichita facility, walked toward the hangars along the east side of Oliver on a recent hot afternoon.

“The hangars are full,” Strode said before entering the door where a massive B-52 bomber was undergoing modification. “We’re very busy.”

As the new vice president and operations director, 45-year-old Strode is in charge of the daily operations at Boeing Integrated Defense Systems in Wichita.

The facility performs maintenance, complicated modifications and upgrades along with the design and engineering work.

“It’s that kind of work that we want to continue,” Strode said. “That’s where our competency is.”

One of its main strengths is its skilled work force, which he said understands the airplanes, their certification requirements and their histories.

Strode took over the position vacated by Derek McLuckey in April.

The mission, Strode said, is to focus on refining processes, improving productivity and efficiencies and integrating the various programs together more tightly.

That way, “we can be as competitive as we can be to help it grow,” Strode said.

The modification business is changing and becoming more competitive.

Maintenance depots and systems suppliers are becoming more capable of doing some of their own modifications and upgrades, Strode said.

“We have to recognize that,” he said. “We have this capability, we just have to not fall back on our past success.”

The Wichita facility employs about 3,000 people, a number Strode said he would like to hold steady. Still, he said its likely to fluctuate next year.

Right now, there’s a push to replace work being done on refueling tankers for Italy.

“As we finish a big program like the Italian tanker, then the numbers drop,” Strode said. “What we strive to do, and usually have been very successful (with), is we backfill and bring in more work.”

Timing of a new program and the skills that are needed at a particular time will be a factor.

The facility is also poised to take on work as a finishing center should Boeing ultimately win a contract to replace aerial refuelers for the U.S. Air Force.