After more than an hour of spirited panel debate (not all of which I could capture on the blog, but you can watch here), the Aerospace Summit is coming to a close.

See you tomorrow.

Tags: aerospace

The first audience question: Is it no longer important to deliver products on time? He said it used to be that on-time delivery was important. Now, it’s routine to expect delays.

The panel members said they were looking at efficiencies to make things quicker. They said it’s still important. Then, John Theisen offered his business card to anyone in the audience who needed work done on time.

Tags: aerospace

Ben Hempstead: “We have been trying to hire engineers,” he said. Only a few UW graduates have qualified. The rest are from China and India. He said marketing “to our own kids in Washington” would help create an interest in studying aerospace. “We can’t hire people from our own university just down the road.”

Glenn Johnson: “It feels like we want to talk a lot about what has been, instead of what could be … ‘the worst enemy of greatness is good enough,’ and it seems like that’s holding us back,” he said. “Taxation issues, it’s very expensive … it is apparent that we’re losing business out of this state,” he said.

Randall Julin: “The Deloit study really laid it all out: Wage rates, labor relations, cost of living … lack of training, worker’s comp, infrastructure,” he said. “They spent a lot of time and money — our money — to figure these things out,” he said, “and I think we have to look at all those.”

Michel Merluzeau: “It is possible to fix it … what really frustrates me with Washington, to some degree, is the over-reliance on Boeing, to some degree.” He cited Singapore as an example of a place that has set goals and implement them.

John Monroe: “Let’s do a positive first. One of the things that happened in December of 2003 is our state Legislature passed an aerospace incentives package,” he said. “Since then, that incentive package has been extended… that’s a real positive step. One of the things that was really positive about it is that it wasn’t just for the Boeing company.” He said only about half of the aerospace companies are taking advantage of the package. “One of the things I would really like to see our Legislature look at … is one of the areas that we really do fall behind is in our ability to find significant funding for buildings.” He said if 737 is to be built anywhere outside Washington, it is worth $120 to $200 million a year for 20 years in lost revenue. “How many buildings do you think we could help finance with one year’s worth of that B&O revenue.” He said the Legislature is currently limited by the state Constitution by how much they acn help.

Stan Sorscher: When asked by moderator/TV reporter Glenn Furley what his “Number One Beef” with Washington is, said: “If I had a Number One Beef, it would be that we spend so much time worrying about what our Number One Beef is.”

Tags: aerospace

A few of the panelists have said the Governor’s Aerospace Council is great, but what they really want is some marketing. Rosemary Brester said she has been frustrated in the past with the lack of marketing, and has sometimes made her own material when meeting with businesses from other countries.

The moderator, Glenn Farley, compared it to the marketing the state does for Washington’s wines.

Tags: aerospace

Glenn Johnson of Alaska Airlines — which only flies Boeing planes — said the bigger issue is some of the challenges in the state. “We need to look at the root causes of why Boeing is doing that,” he said, referring to opening doors elsewhere.

Johnson said taxes are one root cause that needs examination. He said his company and Boeing both face a large tax burden, and that sometimes that can unfortunately make it cheaper for companies to go elsewhere.

Tags: aerospace

Ben Hempstead: He said we have about 600 aerospace companies in Washington, whereas the competition states — say South Carolina – has a dozen. “That’s hard to replace. That’s hard to develop a list of 600 companies. So, the cluster in Washington is selling to the competition. We’re selling to China.”

Is that a bad thing? “If you understand the word globalization … you are going to find that somewhere on the planet. We provide this service to the bidders.” He said his company is never the lowest bidder, but they have a lot of repeat contracts because they offer better quality.

Rosemary Brester: “As this economy has weakened and we, as a relatively small company, had interaction two years ago with … a German-owned company. Out of nowhere, we get an RFP (request for proposal),” she said. Their customers are global and she never knows when they’ll pop up, she said.

Tags: aerospace

“When we, the state of Washington, lose in aerospace, it is the state that loses,” said John Monroe, one of the panelists. He said the competition isn’t among Washington’s counties or even the Eastern and Western parts of the state.

Who’s the competition? France, U.K., Texas, Russia …

Stan Sorscher, on whether Washington is it’s own worst enemy: “There’s a competitive advantage and there’s a cluster. We have a fabulous cluster for aerospace … Sometimes, we tend to lose track of that. The fact that everybody is here today for this event is sort of a testament to the strength that we have as a community for an aerospace cluster.”

Tags: aerospace

OK, now we’re really doing the panel discussion, followed by audience questions. (Got a question? E-amil aerospacesummit@snoco.org)

Moderator: Glenn Farley from KING 5.

“Boeing hung its shingle out in North Charleston, South Carolina this morning,” he said. “The sign is out there and that has brought a great deal of anxiety at least for many people here.”

The nine panelists are:
Rosemary Brester, president and CEO of Hobart Machine products
Ben Hempstead, mechanical engineer for ElectroImpact
Glenn Johnson, CFO and executive VP of Finance for Alaska Airlines
Randall Julin, Absolute Aviation Services, a repair station in Spokane that does work for major airlines
Michel Merluzeau, a consultant
John Monroe, retired Boeing worker
Stan Sorscher, legislative director for an aerospace association
John Theisen, Orion senior V.P.
Michael Zubovic, Aerospace Futures Alliance

Tags: aerospace

After a brief lunch break, the Aerospace Summit is back on. The final portion is a nine-member panel of those involved in the aerospace industry.

The speaker now (whose name I didn’t catch) said he’s happy with the turnout — which looks to be several hundred people (but that’s my own estimate). He said the crowd is proof that Washingtonians want to work together. “We have a unique but urgent opportunity to engage in positive dialog,” the speaker said.

Did I mention you can watch this live at TVW.org?

But back to the speaker: He said we can’t fool ourselves into thinking the only problem with aerospace is employer-union relations. “We all have skin in this game, and we all have the power to support and collaborate in pursuing our mutual best interest.”

Tags: aerospace

Larry Brown of the Machinists Union is now speaking at the Aerospace Summit. “Do we need to continue to work to make it better? You bet we do.”

He said Gov. Chris Gregoire’s Council on Aerospace is one step in the right direction.

“Together, we can ensure we remain the largest aerospace cluster in the world … I can tell you without question, the Machinists Union is dedicated to that prospect.” But, he said, the union can’t do it alone.

He said the no-strike clause is up in Sept. 2012, giving them time to renegotiate and build the relationship they need to avoid another strike.

By the way: You can watch the entire Aerospace Summit LIVE on TVW.org right now. And you can also read along with the blog here. (Keep refreshing for updates.)

Back to Larry Brown: “Here in Washington state, we have the finest aerospace workforce in the world. That is not rhetoric, it’s reality,” he said. “We have warned about the dangers of continued outsourcing over the years,” he said. “Time and time again, we’ve worked together to help Boeing.”

Tags: aerospace