Steven Kennerknecht

FACILITY EXPANSIONS AND RELOCATION

NMF Canada Inc. located north of Montreal in the Mirabel aerospace sector, occupies 100,000 ft2 of manufacturing facilities. Aluminum wing skins are produced for 12 major aircraft programs, and shipped throughout the world. Operations include Gantry CNC machining, shot peening, anodizing, painting and major mechanical assembly. Year 2000 expansions were designed to build upon existing processes, expanding the facility to meet the rapid growth needs of the business jet and regional jet market. Over 60,000 ft2 of additional manufacturing area is being added to the current facility.

The NMF building expansion included a special machine foundation on piles, integral conveyors and chip compaction system for the 120' long, three spindle, five axis gantry machining center. The building climate control system was augmented by a new solar heated exterior wall system for operating cost savings. Other building sections expanded space for forming, conformity, assembly and offices.

Completing wing panel assembly from sub details and fittings is an important element in supplying the customer a turn-key component. These manually assembled upper and lower wing skins are ready for the wing box final assembly and aircraft integration at the OEM.

The most recent NMF projects included the relocation and major upgrade of automated riveting equipment to improve productivity. Other items include automated shot peening and robotic sanding.

The Cercast investment casting manufacturing facility consisted of 107,000 ft2 of office, tooling, casting, finishing and machining operations spread over 7 buildings in three separate city blocks. Rapid growth had necessitated the design of new and modern facilities to facilitate further growth, link value added operations and reduce excess transportation and communication difficulties. Photo taken during company celebration of ISO-9002 accreditation.

Design of the new facility, the largest of its type in the world, accommodated numerous departments having special process environmental requirements, with attention to employee well being. Unique features of the facility included a circulation spine with elevated offices, basement area for waste water and material processing, open area concept and unitized equipment for department flexibility, shortened and automated material flow into all processes, future 50% expansion of all departments pre-designed, and extensive wiring for communication/security/control purposes. Reduction of unnecessary movements, and linkage of value added operations netted savings large enough to support the project cost.

Ground breaking in June followed project approval by the company's board in late April 1998. Negotiation with various municipalities and levels of government ensured financial and political support for this fast moving project. The fast-track concurrent engineering techniques were used to compress the project cycle times, and capture the skills of specialized subcontractors. Building was completed on schedule and budget in December '98. Shown here is portion of completed building interior having a total space of 185,000 ft2.