Boeing: joining forces with the world's largest aerospace company

Sheffield is the only European factory for the world’s largest aerospace company, Boeing, with a multi-million pound investment bringing new jobs and providing the region’s businesses with new supply chain opportunities. This further cements Sheffield City Region (SCR’s) credentials as a global centre for innovation-inspired advanced manufacturing.

Boeing co-founded the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) with The University of Sheffield in 2001 and deepened their partnership by also launching a new major research and development programme to establish new manufacturing technology and methods.

Boeing Sheffield is a 2,300 square meter facility to manufacture actuation systems – used on aircraft wings - for Boeing’s Next-Generation 737, 737 MAX and 777 aircraft. The new facility, the result of a Boeing investment of more than £20 million, is part of a broader plan by Boeing to begin in-house the manufacturing of key actuation components and systems in the U.S. and the U.K., to enhance production efficiency and reduce cost in its supply chain.

Richard Mills, Boeing UK’s Director of Strategy explained the importance of the project:
“Once we had taken the decision to locate Boeing’s first European manufacturing facility in South Yorkshire’s Advanced Manufacturing Innovation District, it was all systems go. We had to ensure that the AMRC research capability was in place, that the City and City Region could assemble a support package to underpin the business case and that the supply chain potential we thought existed, was a reality. Sheffield City Council took the lead on working with the City Region to support our case for investment funding and turned that around extremely quickly.  Acting as the interface with local partners greatly helped our own decision making processes."