Manufacturing
Back to the future
Ask a smart young college student about her career plans and she might talk about business, medicine or law. On rare occasions, you might find someone interested in engineering. What you wont find is a student interested in manufacturing. Thats too bad, because after two decades of tough times, during which the sector has shed…
Esterline offers $715 million for French company
Bellevue-based aerospace and defense manufacturer Esterline Corp. is in negotiations to buy Souriau Group, a global supplier of engineered connectors for harsh environments, for $715 million. Esterline’s offer is for a 100 percent acquisition of Souriau, which is based in Versailles, France, from its primary shareholder, Sagard Private Equity Partners, and other shareholders. Upon regulatory…
Rising Costs in China Combined With Higher U.S. Productivity Will Trigger a “Renaissance” in U.S. Manufacturing
The Wall Street Journal reports reports today about a Boston Consulting Group study that says rising wages in China combined with higher material and shipping costs are fast eroding the economic giant’s cost advantage. With many states adding tax incentives to encourage local production, as early as 2015 it will make more sense for U.S….
Boeing and Bezos-backed Blue Origin receive space-vehicle funding
Four companies, including two from Washington, have received nearly $270 million from NASA to develop commercial crew space transportation systems as part of NASAs second round Commercial Crew Development (CCDev2) initiative. The two Washington companies are Blue Origin, an aerospace company backed by Amazon founder & CEO Jeff Bezos, and the Boeing Co. They will…
Boeing says Dreamliner is at 90 percent of certification
Boeing is edging ever closer to completing its 787 Dreamliner with the announcement this week that a test aircraft had passed 1,000 hours of flight. The company says that 90 percent of testing needed for certification has been completed. However, on the same day as the announcement of the aircraft’s nearing certification (Wednesday), Fijis Air…
Boeing-Airbus Feud Seems Silly in the Context of Rising Competition from Emerging Economies
The escalating feud between Boeing and Europes Airbus over illegal subsidies is increasingly looking like sibling rivalry at a time when both companies are facing rising competition from emerging economies like China and Brazil, who are even more aggressively promoting their aerospace businesses. The inability of the two aerospace companies to agree on what constitutes…
ANNOUNCING THE 2011 WASHINGTON MANUFACTURING AWARDS FINALISTS
Seattle Business magazine congratulates the finalists for its 2011 Washington Manufacturing Awards. It is to recognize and celebrate companies that are helping to maintain a vibrant manufacturing sector in Washington that we present awards each year in the following categories: Manufacturing Executive of the Year, Manufacturer of the Year, Innovator of the Year, Emerging Manufacturer…
Boeing Wins $35 Billion Tanker Deal
In a decision that caught many by surprise, the Air Force announced today that it awarded a $35 billion contract for aerial fueling tankers to Boeing. Early betting had been that European rival Airbus had the advantage in the competition. In addition to offering a larger, what some analysts believed to be more cost-competitive model,…
Rugosa Trading’s Green Peanuts
As it turns out, you can manufacture in Spokane Valley for peanuts. Rugosa Trading Inc., a Blaine, Wash.-based packaging-fulfillment company, has started a division in Spokane Valley that makes biodegradable and compostable packaging products, similar in look and function to Styrofoam packaging peanuts. The division, called One Earth Starch, is located in a 5,000-square-foot manufacturing…
Look Ma, No Hands!
In the 1990s, Tad McGeer pioneered the development of lightweight, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which are now widely used by the military for surveillance. The company he founded, The Insitu Group, was later acquired by Boeing. Now, McGeer has designed a new UAV, the Flexrotor, which he thinks will be ideal for a variety of…
Talking Points: Itron’s Malcolm Unsworth
When Itron CEO Malcolm Unsworth was invited to meet with President Obama last spring, it was just another sign of how central the company has become in the global effort by utilities, at an estimated cost of $45 billion over the next five years, to use smart gas, electric and water meters to help save…
Microsoft “Distinguished Engineer” Has Venture to Re-invent American Manufacturing
Taking old equipment that he purchased and saved when key manufacturing operations moved out of state, Microsoft Research engineer Jim Kajiya is building a machine shop he hopes will help rebuild American manufacturing. Read this great story by Rami Grunbaum, deputy editor of the Seattle Times business section here. Kajiya believes that his old machines,…
The Snake River Boatbuilding Cartel
A 24-foot Hells Canyon Marine Granite HD jet boat on the Snake River. Running the turbulent waters of the Hells Canyon of the Snake River requires boats that are tough, powerful and agile, and capable of handling shallow drafts. Designing and manufacturing them was the sort of challenge that attracted real rugged individualists who thought…