Boeing plans to rearrange Renton plant

RENTON -- The Boeing Co. airplane factories here that rolled out B-29 bombers during World War II and 707s at the dawn of the jet age have survived the wear of years, a massive earthquake in 2001 and persistent rumors that their days were numbered.

But instead of closing, they are about to get a much-needed face lift.

It's part of the investment that Boeing says it will make to keep 737 and 757 production here, rather than moving the work north to the Everett plant.

"Just look at all this empty space," Boeing spokeswoman Sandy Angers told a reporter during a tour of the factory building at the south end of Lake Washington where workers assemble the 757 and 737 jets.

The empty space was on an upper level of the huge factory, high above the 737 production line.

The idea is to turn the unused space into offices for engineers and other Boeing employees who now work in buildings to the south of the factory but within the gates of the Renton plant. By moving those people into the final-assembly building, they will be closer to the planes they design and support. If there is a problem on the assembly line, the amount of time it takes to find the right people who can help is reduced.

It also means Boeing can shutter buildings that are no longer needed.

"The new design should allow for more natural lighting and a flexible, open working environment," Carolyn Corvi, vice president and general manager of the 737 and 757 programs, said in a memo last week to Renton managers.

The renovation work will likely get started early next year.

Offices will be added on the mezzanine, as well as on the second and third levels of the factory.

"We intend to make it a really pleasant working environment, with more windows," Angers said, adding that the design work is not yet finished.

Boeing plans the same kind of renovation at the 4-21 building next door, where the 757 and 737 wings are built.

That building is even older. It was used to produce as many as 160 B-29 bombers per month, and later the 707 was built there.

The 727 was built in the 4-81/82 building, which now is used for 737 and 757 final assembly.

In all, Boeing plans to shutter about 2.4 million square feet of buildings at its Renton plant. The buildings are all owned by Boeing and are within the plant gates.

Angers said Boeing has not decided what it will do with the buildings once they become vacant over the next 18 to 24 months. One possibility, she said, is that some Boeing employees who work outside the Renton plant gates could be moved into vacant buildings within the gates. But that has not been decided, she said.

Boeing previously moved its Renton commercial headquarters, in what was the 10-60 building, to nearby Longacres. The 10-60 building was demolished. So was the 10-85 building, which was seriously damaged by the earthquake in February of last year.

By the end of the year, Boeing will transfer its 757 fuselage work in the 10-50 building to Wichita, Kan., and that building will be closed.

Because of the continued consolidation, there has been speculation for more than a year that Boeing might actually move its Renton jetliner production to Everett. Executives have said that if such a drastic consolidation was to be made, now would be an ideal time because production rates are low in the wake of the industry's worst-ever slump.

But Corvi made it clear in an interview with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on Thursday that Boeing has decided to stay in Renton, while consolidating operations there.

Corvi's office is in one of those buildings about to be vacated. When she greeted a reporter in her office earlier this week, she handed him a new booklet that Boeing is distributing that tells the history of its jetliner programs in Renton and details the transformation that is under way in the Renton factory as a result of lean manufacturing. An introduction notes that Renton has played a key role in the jetliner age, and that about 40 percent of all the commercial jetliners in service today were built there.

Corvi said she just gave one of the first booklets to Renton's mayor.

P-I aerospace reporter James Wallace can be reached at 206-448-8040 or jameswallace@seattlepi.com

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