Flying Colours has officially opened the doors of its new facility at its production site in St Louis, Missouri.
The opening of the new building brings the total footprint of the company’s St Louis site to almost 100,000ft². An additional 70 people have been employed for the facility, bringing the total of Flying Colours employees to 180 in the USA.
Employees at the new facility are designing, building and finishing the woodwork monuments for large business jet cabins. The first components should be delivered to an undisclosed customer before the end of March 2018.
The floorplan was created with lean manufacturing operating principles at its core. The lean approach, combined with the additional workshop space, will increase productivity at St Louis by 600% during the first year, said Flying Colours.
The new workshop’s capabilities mirror those of the company’s headquarters in Peterborough, Canada, and also include new equipment, such as an Edge Fill machine, which fills the voids in composite panels after being cut and shaped by the CNC machine.
Two new paint booths are designed to ensure the best surface appearance before final treatment in a new enclosed curing room. The company has also built a third paint booth dedicated to complex fasteners and cabinet interiors.
The layout is designed to follow the natural workflow of projects – beginning on the CNC, before moving on to the machine room which incorporates a selection of detailing tools for woodwork/cabinetry. Paint, finishing, framing and assembly follow, before the final quality control inspection.
The space was initially specified to expand the company’s monument capacity. However, Flying Colours has maximized the footprint to create spaces for upholstery, engineering and avionics work, as well as production control offices, conference rooms and client meeting areas.
For more information, see the upcoming April 2018 issue of Business Jet Interiors International!
March 22, 2018
