KUALA LUMPUR: American technology and manufacturing company Honeywell International Inc is ramping up its presence in Malaysia by moving its flight control system production for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner to Penang.
The shift, currently ongoing, is targeted to be completed by year-end.
“It is similar to a lot of products that are (manufactured) in Penang right now. These are products that are made for global consumption. So it’s not just for the Malaysian market or Asia. It’s (also) for global use,” Honeywell president for Southeast Asia Briand Greer told Business Times in an interview recently.
He said flight control systems produced at the Penang facility would be shipped to Boeing’s plant in the United States and installed in its new B787 aircraft.
Currently, the flight control system is produced in the US.
Honeywell’s Penang facility, which opened in January 2009, produces integrated avionics systems for commercial, business and general aviation and military aircraft.
For commercial air transport, it manufactures products that include automatic flight controls, electronic flight displays, weather radar, navigation systems, and flight management systems and reference sensors.
It also produces avionics and information systems for business jets, turboprops and twin-turbine helicopters.
Greer, who was previously Honeywell Aerospace president for Asia Pacific, said aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) operations would also be set up at the Penang facility to cater to the growing need for maintenance and service works among airlines in the region.
However, there is no set date yet
as that would be taking place in stages.
Demand for MRO services are also expected to come from Malaysia-based airlines, especially from
AirAsia Bhd and Malaysia Airlines Bhd, which have ordered 100 Airbus A321s and 50 Boeing 737 MAXs, respectively, at the recent Farnborough International Air Show in the United Kingdom.
Despite the additional activities at its Penang operations, Greer said Honeywell didn’t see the need to expand the 220,000-sq-ft facility at present as there was still ample space for production works and MRO services.
Relatively, Greer said, the group was looking to set up a distribution centre to store expected high volume of aircraft parts, given the rising number of planes operating in the region.
The move is aimed at introducing more aerospace-related activities.
The setting up of the distribution centre will strengthen Honeywell’s footprint in Asean, particularly in developing countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam, and shows the company’s long-term
investment commitment in Malaysia.
Kuala Lumpur was chosen as Honeywell’s headquarters in the Asean region due to its location in the centre of Southeast Asia, having English-speaking population and a multi-cultural environment, said Greer.
“The government has a very focused and realistic plan to... raise the middle-class (income group) and become a high-income nation by 2020,” he said.
Greer added that the Malaysian government was also easy to work with and had been supportive of attracting international companies via its Principle Hub Initiative.
Honeywell is the first multi-
national company to join the programme, which aims to bring more foreign investments to Malaysia.
The group is also looking for opportunities in the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) Aeropolis project.
“We have had some discussions to understand what type of deals they are doing there, what’s attractive about it and all that. So we are still in discussions about that,” said Greer.
The KLIA Aeropolis is a massive airport city project being developed by Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd.
As Honeywell sets its sights on further expansion in aerospace, oil and gas and building-management sectors in Asean, the group plans to double its high-level managerial workforce to 700 from 350 currently.
In addition, it is working with local universities to raise awareness about the company among students and to attract top talents in the future.
Honeywell is also on the lookout for a new office building that can house all of its units in Malaysia.
“We are having discussions about finding a big enough space for Honeywell so it can have one big office here and lots of room for expansion,” said Greer, adding that Honeywell’s work culture was very team-oriented.
Greer is responsible for providing strategic and operational direction for Honeywell’s three strategic business groups — automation and control solutions (APS), performance materials and technologies (PMT), and aero-space — in Southeast Asia.
He aims to grow these business units in Southeast Asia in line with Honeywell’s focus on driving its “One Honeywell” growth initiatives across its high-growth countries, including Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam.
In Malaysia, besides the aerospace business, Honeywell also has products and services specifically catered to the oil and gas industry and building management systems.
The group has been a major system and solution provider to commercial and industrial buildings in Malaysia for about a decade.
The APS unit produces building systems, such as the Honeywell Building Solutions, Environmental and Energy Solutions, Honeywell Industrial Safety, Honeywell Security and Fire, as well as Sensing and Productivity Solutions.
“Our building systems and solutions — it’s the brain of a building. A lot of people think a building is just a building. All new buildings are built with systems and sensors that monitor energy use, security, fire protection, among others,” said Greer.
Honeywell systems are installed in prominent projects that include Kuala Lumpur City Centre Towers, University of Petronas and Menara Citibank.
The group also has a manufacturing facility in Shah Alam that make electrical devices and systems.
Under its PMT unit, Honeywell is developing advanced materials, process technologies and automation solutions as well as manufacturing a wide variety of high-performance products.
In Malaysia, the group provides engineering, design and fabrication of process plants and equipment for the gas processing and hydrogen industries.