When Simon Roberts was named vice-president and general manager for Bombardier's turboprops business unit and Toronto operations this spring, his responsibilities were clear - transform the Canadian airframer's Toronto site into a world-class centre of manufacturing and technical excellence, and position the plant to be able to increase capacity or launch new product derivatives such as the proposed Q400X stretched turboprop.

A 22-year veteran of Airbus, Roberts spent several years as head of operations at the European manufacturer's A320 wing assembly facility in the UK and later as vice-president, Hawker programme before joining Bombardier in September 2007 as a regional aircraft performance management executive.

A year later, Roberts was promoted to vice-president, quality and performance manager, Bombardier Commercial Aircraft, with responsibility for the Toronto site as well as the airframer's Montreal-area Mirabel plant that was adopting lean manufacturing principles.

Bombardier production lines
 © Bombardier
The stark difference between Bay 4 - the Global Epxress line (top) and Bay 5 - the Q Series line

Roberts is tasked with trying "to build a factory of problem solvers and innovators" at Bombardier's 158,000m2 (1.7 million ft2) Toronto facility. Such an endeavour will require a significant physical and cultural transformation that cannot and will not happen overnight. Toronto has a rich aviation history, with manufacturing roots that reach to 1928 when de Havilland Aircraft of Canada was formed as a sales and assembly arm for its British parent company's products.

Ten years later, the site manufactured the first Canadian-built Tiger Moth for the Royal Canadian Air Force. Several other firsts were recorded, including the 1947 first flight of the DHC-2 Beaver and the 1963 launch of the DHC-6 Twin Otter programme, before Bombardier acquired de Havilland in 1992.

Seventeen years later, Bombardier's Toronto plant employs 4,500 workers and is one of the largest employers in the Greater Toronto area.The plant produces the Q400 turboprop and Global Express business jet as well as the wings for the Learjet 45, and has an annual production rate of 116 aircraft and 56 wings.

An example of Bombardier's historic past can still be found, although not for much longer, in Bay 5 of the 10-bay main factory. Darkly lit and cluttered, Bay 5 houses the smaller Q Series line that, by press time, will have pushed out its final two Q300s for delivery to Air New Zealand and the military.

With demand shifting toward larger models, Bombardier is to shut production of its Q200s and Q300s. This will free resources for the 70-seat Q400 programme, which has suffered with supply chain challenges, but which is nonetheless undergoing a boost in production.

Separately, Bombardier is considering offering a stretched version of the Q400, dubbed the Q400X, in around 2013-14, although it has not made a commitment to the programme or this timeframe.

Ceasing production of the smaller Q turboprops provides a good opportunity "to really improve the flow and manufacturing philosophy in Toronto" and will position the site "for future derivatives and future production scenarios in terms of output", says Roberts.

Technicians in the outdated Bay 5 need only look to the adjoining Global Express line in Bay 4 for evidence that change is afoot. A bright, gleaming structure where no components station is over 1.5m (5ft) in height and where "everything has a place and everything is in a place", Bay 4 represents "the level of visibility that we're creating" and "provides the standard for the rest of the facility as we make the major changes", says Roberts.

The changes are part of what is known at the Toronto plant as the "Achieving Excellence System", an internal roadmap that aims to make Toronto the "site of tomorrow, today" by integrating world-class best practices, including a philosophy centred on lean manufacturing to eliminate wasteful cost while maintaining good employee relations.

At present, the Toronto facility is rated "silver" under Bombardier's internal rating system, but the facility has its eye on reaching the "diamond" level in terms of performance.

With this in mind, Roberts recently took Bombardier managers to Japan to check out world-class automaker Toyota and other Japanese companies' lean processes "to help us define some key steps".

Gemba Research, a consultancy that teaches "Kaizen" and lean management based on the Toyota production system, arranged the trips for Bombardier. Brad Schmidt, managing partner at Gemba, says Bombardier's Toronto personnel, like the Mirabel staffers before them, were particularly impressed with a Japanese manufacturing plant that produces high-end, pre-fabricated homes, noting its similarities to aircraft production. This helped to convince Toronto managers of the value of lean.

Roberts' team came away with an understanding that a new-found customer focus must be brought directly on to the production floor. At Toronto's Bay 4, the company has stationed "customer protection boards" at strategic points to ensure "customers will have an amazing experience upon delivery", says Roberts, noting that the aircraft "cannot pass through these points without a perfect score".

Major shifts in training are also taking place. Bombardier has invested $250,000 in a dedicated academy at the Toronto site to develop learning and problem-solving skills. Among other initiatives, new technical training courses will see workers cross-trained to increase skill levels across all programmes. Training will be aligned to lean deployment, quality and cost-reduction programmes.

A cultural transformation "from senior leadership level to line managers and workers" is also under way at the Toronto site. Every day the full Toronto factory leadership team gets together to create "this visible factory whereby everybody understands the direction we're going" and asks themselves: "Are we winning on a day-to-day basis?" says Roberts.

Bombardier's manufacturing plant at Mirabel has taken significant steps to improve its operations through lean, as has its Dorval plant in the Montreal area. "They made a huge change," says Schmidt, adding that there "is a lot of real, dynamic stuff you would not normally see in a French aerospace mentality".

The Mirabel factory, which produces the CRJ NextGen Series and is earmarked to produce the airframer's 110/130-seat CSeries mainline family, keeps "very little inventory" and fosters employee input, says director of CRJ programmes Jean-Guy Blodin.

He describes one instance where an assembly line worker, using scrap 2 x 4s, designed a system for holding the CRJ's nacelle while work is being done on the aircraft. His solution has since been used across the factory.

Blodin also points to the ergonomic considerations made by Mirabel managers for assembly workers. "We may be the only manufacturer that builds a wing on an angle," he says.

While Roberts is reluctant to draw too many comparisons between the Mirabel and Toronto facilities, he says Bombardier is "keen to develop standard approaches to factory layout and that's really captured in the Achieving Excellence System".

The airframer has not heard objections from its Toronto-area employees. Roberts says: "It's encouraging, based on the proud history in Toronto. When you have conversations with employees about investing in the future of the facility and our product and people, they are very supportive of that approach."

Source: Flight International