In a move emblematic of the sea change at Bombardier over the last half dozen years, the Canadian airframer in early May inaugurated its new $500 million Global aircraft assembly center at Toronto Pearson International Airport. The celebration, which drew thousands—including the employees, their families, shareholders, and other dignitaries—marked the full transition from its production site in nearby Downsview, also in Ontario, Canada.
But it was also the latest step in an ongoing transition of the one-time conglomerate that winnowed into a pure-play business jet company, chipped away at a heavy net leverage debt ratio that just a few years ago was at 7.7 (now 3.3), and reshaped its business focus with the shuttering of the long Learjet line, expansion of its services business, and renewed focus on its traditional Global and Challenger business lines as well as on sustainable concepts such as the blended-wing EcoJet.
To the Montreal-headquartered company, the celebration of the plant was fitting as the company rolled out a new logo nicknamed the “Mach,” featuring a silhouette of an aircraft breaking the sound barrier and strokes of wind over wing to pay homage to the company’s past—and in particular, honoring its workers who have served the company.
At the dedication celebration, Bombardier president and CEO Éric Martel noted that the logo was inspired by the supersonic flight the Global 8000 made two years ago. “Our new brand identity celebrates our momentum and our drive for excellence. This is exactly what we're doing here in Ontario.”
Noting that Downsview had been part of Bombardier for more than 30 years through the acquisition of de Havilland in 1992, Martel added that the company built more than 1,000 Globals at the plant that opened in 1928 to build DH Moths. “It's a place that transformed the aerospace industry in Canada,” he maintained. “As we inaugurate this brand-new site, we can also be proud of our heritage in Ontario, and with all the experience and talent we brought over from Downsview, we're going to continue making Canadian aviation history right here.”
The dedication came a little more than a month after Bombardier rolled out the final Downsview-built Global 7500. That aircraft flew away from the facility on March 23. It was a transition that was years in the planning; Bombardier announced plans to move to Pearson in 2018.
The actual move was a six-month process that involved the slow transition of tooling, stations, and people and, toward the latter part, running two lines simultaneously.
Bombardier moved specific work centers—including all of the tools and all of the associated people—in three-week cycles. The Global 5500/6500 was fully stood up first. “We had progressively emptied the Downsview facility, and progressively filled the new Pearson facility,” said Graham Kelly, v-p of operations for Global aircraft at the Toronto and Red Oak, Texas sites. “Now everything is here…and every element of our business is now at the Pearson facility.”
As for Downsview, Bombardier no longer owns the site, he said.
“We chose Pearson Airport because it was the closest runway to our existing facility at Downsview, and we had to make sure that our resources, our skilled workforce, was close at hand to support our new facility,” Kelly said, adding that Bombardier has moved all 2,500 workers to the new site.
The Pearson location provided the right downsizing for Bombardier’s footprint, spanning 40 acres rather than the 400-acre location at Downsview. “We only needed 40 acres, and we wanted to create a building that was state-of-the-art, but also had all of the Global family under one roof and in a single flow operation,” Kelly said.
At Downsview, production lines were spread out over multiple long linear bays. “While they were good for 90 years ago, it wasn't creating an optimum flow for our production.”
Each Downsview bay could hold four aircraft, requiring the production flow to weave in and out of them. In the new facility, Bombardier can enclose 20 aircraft under one roof, he noted. “And, we can move the line within four hours.”
The new 770,000-sq-ft facility is an integrated facility that was designed around the aircraft. It houses two production lines flowing in a C-shape configuration, with the Global 7500 assembly looping in an outer ring and the Global 5500/6500 line in the inner ring.
The production flow comprises several positions broken into three major activities: large component handling, where key parts arrive from all around the world; aerostructures, where all the major components are joined; and then the final assembly line, where systems are integrated and tested.
Aircraft subsequently move to the “preflight” cycle in a separate hangar that can house six aircraft. There, they are tested and prepped for certification.
He described the numerous benefits of the new site and layout—notably, the efficiencies. “People can work on either program here. We have similar tools and processes, so it gives us a lot more flexibility. Having both programs under one roof gives us great benefits from an operations perspective,” he said, explaining, “It enables us to move our people within the same facility onto different programs. It allows us to share best practices across the programs because we're next door to each other. So, it's breaking down a lot of the silos that we had back at the Downsview facility. Here, we're working as one big team, and we're starting to see that increased dialog and sharing of best practices within the facility.”
Kelly noted that a few employees shared with him that they had run into colleagues in the new facility that they hadn’t seen for 20 years. “It’s like working for a new company,” he was told.
The production technology is the same in terms of robotics, such as that used in the Global 7500 program. “What we have done, though, is optimize the line and the flow and our things such as kitting of the parts, kitting of our hardware, and single-point tooling for each of the work centers. So, we used to tool up the person. Now, we tool up the work center.”
The center is also providing substantial environmental benefits, he added. The facility has reduced energy consumption by up to 60% and was designed with features such as underground fuel flow tanks that enable the company to recirculate the fuel and eliminate the need for fuel trucks.
It has a ground-running enclosure with a large sound barrier that significantly lowers noise, down to about 77 dB beyond the barrier, or about the sound of a noisy restaurant. This meets the environmental restrictions necessary for the surrounding community and eliminates the need to head to Pearson for high-speed ground runs.
As far as the future of the facility, Kelly said the plant is already optimized for the run rates needed to scale up to the projected bump in Global production next year. But there’s room to add more if necessary, he said. “We can optimize the shift patterns that we’re working, increase productivity out of this out of this facility; we can optimize the shift patterns that we're working,” he said, adding that there is extra capacity in particular on the second, night, and weekend shifts.
In a move emblematic of the sea change at Bombardier over the last half dozen years, the Canadian airframer in early May inaugurated its new $500 million Global aircraft assembly center at Toronto Pearson International Airport. The celebration, which drew thousands—including the employees, their families, shareholders, and other dignitaries—marked the full transition from its production site in nearby Downsview, also in Ontario, Canada.
But it was also the latest step in an ongoing transition of the one-time conglomerate that winnowed into a pure-play business jet company, chipped away at a heavy net leverage debt ratio that just a few years ago was at 7.7 (now 3.3), and reshaped its business focus with the shuttering of the long Learjet line, expansion of its services business, and renewed focus on its traditional Global and Challenger business lines as well as on sustainable concepts such as the blended-wing EcoJet.
To the Montreal-headquartered company, the celebration of the plant was fitting as the company rolled out a new logo nicknamed the “Mach,” featuring a silhouette of an aircraft breaking the sound barrier and strokes of wind over wing to pay homage to the company’s past—and in particular, honoring its workers who have served the company.
At the dedication celebration, Bombardier president and CEO Éric Martel noted that the logo was inspired by the supersonic flight the Global 8000 made two years ago. “Our new brand identity celebrates our momentum and our drive for excellence. This is exactly what we're doing here in Ontario.”
Noting that Downsview had been part of Bombardier for more than 30 years through the acquisition of de Havilland in 1992, Martel added that the company built more than 1,000 Globals at the plant that opened in 1928 to build DH Moths. “It's a place that transformed the aerospace industry in Canada,” he maintained. “As we inaugurate this brand-new site, we can also be proud of our heritage in Ontario, and with all the experience and talent we brought over from Downsview, we're going to continue making Canadian aviation history right here.”
The dedication came a little more than a month after Bombardier rolled out the final Downsview-built Global 7500. That aircraft flew away from the facility on March 23. It was a transition that was years in the planning; Bombardier announced plans to move to Pearson in 2018.
The actual move was a six-month process that involved the slow transition of tooling, stations, and people and, toward the latter part, running two lines simultaneously.
Bombardier moved specific work centers—including all of the tools and all of the associated people—in three-week cycles. The Global 5500/6500 was fully stood up first. “We had progressively emptied the Downsview facility, and progressively filled the new Pearson facility,” said Graham Kelly, v-p of operations for Global aircraft at the Toronto and Red Oak, Texas sites. “Now everything is here…and every element of our business is now at the Pearson facility.”
As for Downsview, Bombardier no longer owns the site, he said.
“We chose Pearson Airport because it was the closest runway to our existing facility at Downsview, and we had to make sure that our resources, our skilled workforce, was close at hand to support our new facility,” Kelly said, adding that Bombardier has moved all 2,500 workers to the new site.
The Pearson location provided the right downsizing for Bombardier’s footprint, spanning 40 acres rather than the 400-acre location at Downsview. “We only needed 40 acres, and we wanted to create a building that was state-of-the-art, but also had all of the Global family under one roof and in a single flow operation,” Kelly said.
At Downsview, production lines were spread out over multiple long linear bays. “While they were good for 90 years ago, it wasn't creating an optimum flow for our production.”
Each Downsview bay could hold four aircraft, requiring the production flow to weave in and out of them. In the new facility, Bombardier can enclose 20 aircraft under one roof, he noted. “And, we can move the line within four hours.”
The new 770,000-sq-ft facility is an integrated facility that was designed around the aircraft. It houses two production lines flowing in a C-shape configuration, with the Global 7500 assembly looping in an outer ring and the Global 5500/6500 line in the inner ring.
The production flow comprises several positions broken into three major activities: large component handling, where key parts arrive from all around the world; aerostructures, where all the major components are joined; and then the final assembly line, where systems are integrated and tested.
Aircraft subsequently move to the “preflight” cycle in a separate hangar that can house six aircraft. There, they are tested and prepped for certification.
He described the numerous benefits of the new site and layout—notably, the efficiencies. “People can work on either program here. We have similar tools and processes, so it gives us a lot more flexibility. Having both programs under one roof gives us great benefits from an operations perspective,” he said, explaining, “It enables us to move our people within the same facility onto different programs. It allows us to share best practices across the programs because we're next door to each other. So, it's breaking down a lot of the silos that we had back at the Downsview facility. Here, we're working as one big team, and we're starting to see that increased dialog and sharing of best practices within the facility.”
Kelly noted that a few employees shared with him that they had run into colleagues in the new facility that they hadn’t seen for 20 years. “It’s like working for a new company,” he was told.
The production technology is the same in terms of robotics, such as that used in the Global 7500 program. “What we have done, though, is optimize the line and the flow and our things such as kitting of the parts, kitting of our hardware, and single-point tooling for each of the work centers. So, we used to tool up the person. Now, we tool up the work center.”
The center is also providing substantial environmental benefits, he added. The facility has reduced energy consumption by up to 60% and was designed with features such as underground fuel flow tanks that enable the company to recirculate the fuel and eliminate the need for fuel trucks.
It has a ground-running enclosure with a large sound barrier that significantly lowers noise, down to about 77 dB beyond the barrier, or about the sound of a noisy restaurant. This meets the environmental restrictions necessary for the surrounding community and eliminates the need to head to Pearson for high-speed ground runs.
As far as the future of the facility, Kelly said the plant is already optimized for the run rates needed to scale up to the projected bump in Global production next year. But there’s room to add more if necessary, he said. “We can optimize the shift patterns that we’re working, increase productivity out of this out of this facility; we can optimize the shift patterns that we're working,” he said, adding that there is extra capacity in particular on the second, night, and weekend shifts.