Liebherr-aerospace in the americas, Expanding in canada – Liebherr Downloads User Manual

Page 20

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Liebherr-Aerospace in the Americas

For more than 20 years, Liebherr-Aero space has been operating its own customer service company in Saline
(Michigan, USA) as well as a customer service facility in Laval near Montreal (Canada). The plant in Guaratinguetá
(Brazil) burned down in 2011, but will be re-erected. As far as possible, production was relocated to other facilities
within the global production network.

Expanding in Canada

Following the official announcement made
at Farnborough International Airshow in
July 2010, Liebherr-Aerospace Canada
expanded its facility in 2011 in order to ac-
commodate the final assembly and test-
ing of the landing gear for the Bombardier
CSeries aircraft. This project will account
for an investment of more than 3.8 million
Canadian Dollars of capital expenditure
(2.9 million EUR) when completed.

supporting the division’s activities in North
America. In 2001, Liebherr-Aero

space

Canada along with Liebherr-

Canada’s

other divisions moved to its current loca-
tion in a new building in Laval (Quebec).

With a population of nearly 400,000,
Laval is the third largest city in Que-
bec. Strategically situated close to
Bombardier’s sites in Montreal and Mi-
rabel, Liebherr-Aerospace Canada cur-
rently provides technical, logistics and
engineering support to the customer’s
final assembly lines.

Further, Liebherr-Transportation Systems
in North America is based at this facility.
The local team provides sales and mar-
keting as well as customer support func-
tions to the rail industry.

The supply of the air management sys-
tem and the landing gear system to the
CSeries aircraft has created new oppor-
tunities for Liebherr-Aerospace Canada.
Bombardier Aerospace’s CSeries final
assembly line will be in Mirabel, approxi-
mately 35 km from Liebherr’s Laval facility.

Liebherr- Aerospace Canada will be re-
sponsible for expanded logistics as well
as final assembly and testing of the land-
ing gear system. This will further optimize
the flow of parts from the global supply
base and shorten reaction time to cus-
tomer requests.

The Laval facility was expanded by
1,400 m² in October 2011. The new build-
ing will house six final assembly cells as
well as test facilities for the CSeries land-
ing gear, thus enabling Liebherr to man-
age just-in-time deliveries directly to the
aircraft assembly line, and to contribute to
a peak production rate of one aircraft per
day. In addition, one part of the building
will be dedicated to maintenance activities
for rail industry customers.

Liebherr-Aerospace Canada works
closely with the European Liebherr OEMs
to procure tooling and other equipment.
Later this year, the recruiting and train-
ing process for the additional activities
will be commenced. The expansion is
part of Liebherr’s commitment towards
Bombardier.

Liebherr’s activities in the fields of aero-
space and transportation in Canada date
back to 1993 when Liebherr-Aerospace
Toulouse SAS was selected as a sup-
plier of the air management system for
Bombardier Aerospace’s Global Express
aircraft. This was the starting point of a
fruitful relationship between Bombardier
and Liebherr in North America.

Liebherr-Aerospace Canada was created
in 1997 within the Liebherr Group’s Cana-
dian sales and service company, Liebherr-
Canada Ltd., Burlington, with the aim of

Left to right: Alex Vlielander

(President Liebherr Aerospace Saline, Inc.),

Gretchen Driskell (Mayor of Saline),

Philipp Liebherr, Francis Niss (President

Liebherr-Aerospace & Transportation SAS)

Aerospace

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