In a large building in Belfast near where thousands of hard-working laborers hammered thick steel plates to massive ribs and fittings using thumb-size rivets to build the Titanic, Bombardier Aerospace is carving its own advanced technology niche, building wings for new aircraft models almost entirely from composite materials. In an odd coincidence, the famed Harland and Wolff shipyard that built the Titanic now focuses most of its efforts in the composites business, manufacturing enormous power-generating wind turbines.
For Bombardier, the Belfast facility is more than just a manufacturing center. Belfast is a relatively high-cost locale, and to keep the 1,100 employees there productive, they have to add value to the products that they make. “We’re not going to be sustainable if we just manufacture things,” said Michael Ryan, v-p and general manager of the Belfast facility. “We manufacture, integrate and support our products, with progressively more value added.”
