Meggitt Polymers & Composites Celebrates Expansion and Reconfiguration of San Diego Facilities with Grand Opening and Reception

SAN DIEGO, Calif. – Aug. 9, 2018 – Meggitt Polymers & Composites (MPC) held a grand opening ceremony and reception on Wed., Aug. 8, 2018, for a significant expansion and reconfiguration of its San Diego manufacturing operations. The “Top Gun” project, located on the street of the same name, consolidates two locations which totaled 75,000 sq. ft. into a single nearby facility providing 120,000 sq. ft. of expanded capacity. MPC is a division of Meggitt PLC, a global engineering group specializing in extreme environment components and smart sub-systems for aerospace, defense and energy markets.

“This significant investment by Meggitt in California is great news for our military and our state’s economy,” said Panorea Avdis, Director of the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) and member of the Governor’s Military Council. “GO-Biz is pleased to have developed a long-term partnership with Meggitt that has resulted in several state incentive awards to support their growth, including a $2-million California Competes Tax Credit award to coincide with new full-time employees and capital investments.” 

The expansion sets a new benchmark for aerospace composites manufacturing, enabling Meggitt to create a state-of-the-art, highly-efficient, cellular manufacturing flow utilizing the latest technologies. The new operation is closely aligned with the company’s production systems and Meggitt Production System (MPS) operational excellence program. It also provides scalable capacity needed to support notable customer platforms, for both growth in legacy programs and expected growth in new programs.

“Meggitt’s expansion of their advanced engineering and manufacturing facility will help keep more of our servicemembers safe and create jobs here in San Diego,” said U.S. Congressman Scott Peters. “They are part of a defense ecosystem that contributes $9 billion to our regional economy and over 100,000 advanced manufacturing jobs, powered by our innovation economy. As we work to secure federal funding for our defense supply chain, Meggitt is an example of why the military continues to invest in San Diego.”

In attendance to celebrate the grand opening were key elected officials as well as Meggitt leaders, local team members, suppliers and customers. The project represents a substantial investment in the local economy in terms of both employment and increased revenue for local businesses.

“Meggitt’s decision to expand here is San Diego means a significant number of new, high-paid, advanced manufacturing jobs in the county,” stated Supervisor Kristin Gaspar. “I was honored to be an early supporter of this project in helping Meggitt obtain key assistance from the State to incentivize this critical expansion.”

The need for additional manufacturing capacity was identified in 2014, as growth rates on key defense programs forecast increases beyond the existing footprint’s capability. When combined with new commercial opportunities, the project was initiated. In 2016, a cross-functional team was selected to design the new facility using the company’s Production Preparation Process (3P) to lay out each production line to eliminate waste in the form of footprint, walking distances and material travel. The new facility includes efficient production lines and environmentally controlled manufacturing space. In addition to part flow, teamwork is enhanced by co-locating production support functions on the product lines and establishing an open-concept office designed to foster communication, teamwork and a high-performance culture.

Regarding the importance of teams, Site Leader Jim Beck stated, “We had an opportunity to lay out our Top Gun facility with lean principles in order to eliminate waste and create a visual factory. The efficiencies in the layout are exciting. However, we would expect no less from an investment of this magnitude. What truly sets this project apart are design features that complement and drive our culture objectives of integrity, teamwork and performance.”

The San Diego MPC location is the Meggitt Group Center of Excellence for complex, molded aircraft engine components and structures used in extreme environments. Its expertise is in high-volume components for engines and adjacencies, missiles and munitions, and structural components on the industry-leading commercial and defense aviation platforms.