Doubling-up on kits

The new factory sits adjacent to the original Kit Factory Unit 1 which has been operating since January 2015 and which, for the first time, consolidated all kit marshalling activities from all Airbus European sites into one centralised location.

Adding a further 5,300m² of warehousing to the 10,000m² of Kit Factory Unit 1 means that Satair Group will be able to more than double kit delivery performance to 110,000 kits a year in 2017.

This increase in capacity is needed because of the dramatic growth for Airbus modification kits, repair kits or upgrade kits. Each kit consists of many different single parts that are assembled and delivered for a specific and dedicated task.

Tim Bothe, Satair Group’s Vice President of Supply Chain stated that the Satair Group Kit Factory is the centralised worldwide kitting centre for the Airbus and Satair Group aftersales business.

He added: “The new construction was kicked off in June 2016 and just nine months later we were ready for the inauguration. This is typical of our highly dynamic business environment where growth has to take place within a very short time frame to support our customers.”

The combined Kit Factories, Units 1 and 2, are close to the Airbus Operations Germany site south of the River Elbe in Hamburg. The main working and kitting area will stay in Unit 1, while the move of material into Unit 2, with its extra capacity, will allow Satair Group to size the productivity and capacity in line with the forecasted workload.

In the new unit there will be a Hazardous Material (HAZMAT) area and more space to store the cabin upgrades monuments and the upcoming retrofits for the A380 and A350 programmes. The extension will also allow for consolidating the standard hardware stock under a single roof. Further investment in new technology machinery is already planned to help automate the physical kitting process.