Boeing Co.’s big move of its Anaheim offices and labs to its Huntington Beach campus is bringing leaner operations for the aerospace and defense contractor.
The move of some 3,000 workers and equipment stands to bolster communication and work space as well as save Boeing money, according to the company.
“It’s like we have a clean sheet to lay out the labs,” said Janis Mantini, Boeing program manager in charge of the move.
The move, which started last year and is expected to continue well into next year, comes with a lot of sweeping, sorting and storing, according to Mantini.
The 100-acre Anaheim campus has 18 buildings and is home to some of Boeing’s oldest programs, including its missile systems and submarine navigation gear that dates back to the 1950s.
Boeing is the county’s fourth largest employer with about 9,400 workers here.
Last week the company said it would lay off 750 people from its satellite program in Seal Beach and El Segundo but didn’t give an exact number of how many would be cut in Orange County.
So far, about 1,200 people have moved from Anaheim to Huntington Beach.
By the end of the year, an additional 800 are set to go to Huntington Beach, leaving about 1,000 in Anaheim. They’ll move at a later date, Mantini said.
The company wouldn’t say how much the move is costing. But Boeing already is saving money, according to Mantini.
Boeing, whose revenue comes with the ebb and flow of contracts from the government and aerospace industry, saw the Anaheim move as a way to streamline operations by pairing programs together and getting rid of underused space.
When the move is done, the Huntington Beach campus is expected to be full, making Boeing’s local operations more efficient.
All of Boeing’s communications programs in the county, including its Future Combat Systems and C3 Network projects for the military, will be in Huntington Beach by the end of the year.
Its Joint Tactical Radio System program, which works on enhancing the military’s radios with data and video feeds, had workers in at least five spots on the Anaheim campus before settling into one space in Huntington Beach, according to Mantini.
Moving that operation to Huntington Beach allows Boeing workers to easily share their work and communicate better, she said.
New labs also will see improvements from a technical standpoint, according to Mantini.
A $10 million investment into a lab to test missile sensors is an example, she said.
The lab,the Dynamic Advanced Radar Test facility,is designed to save money on field testing of sensors that put missiles on target.
The 1,700-square-foot lab is twice the size of the old one and allows Boeing’s engineers to test the sensors against mock battlefield conditions, including radar jamming and bad weather.
Boeing’s goals with the program are to make its sensors smaller and cheaper for its military buyers.
“We’ve been having a lot of success at it,” said Debra Rub-Zenko, vice president of Boeing’s weapons programs.
The last programs that will be moved from Anaheim will be the bulk of the intercontinental ballistic missile program and its submarine navigation systems. They are some of the company’s oldest programs.
As for Boeing’s workers, many had some anxiety about the big move when it was first announced, Mantini said.
“But everything’s been fine. There’s been no attrition. Everything is working out,” she said.
About 3,500 people commute to Boeing’s OC locations from outside the county.
Most of those,about 2,300,come from Los Angeles County. About 600 commute from Riverside County, 350 from San Bernardino County and 54 from Ventura County.
Late last year Boeing closed a deal to sell 60 acres of its industrial and office space in Anaheim to Sacramento-based developer Panattoni Development Co., which is leasing some of the land back to the company for now.
Boeing also owns an additional 40 acres in Anaheim that it plans to keep for the time being.
