São José dos Campos, October 21, 2010 – Embraer has named Phil Krull Managing Director of the Company’s first U.S. aircraft assembly plant and customer center, at Melbourne International Airport (MLB), in Melbourne, Florida. Krull will head up the newly established facility dedicated to the Phenom executive jet family in the Company’s largest market.
Krull’s responsibilities for the facility’s industrial and plant operations include developing strategies to maximize profitability and customer satisfaction. He will also be the local contact person for suppliers, government authorities and the surrounding Melbourne community.
The central Florida native brings vast qualifications in manufacturing operations and engineering, as well as experience in continuous improvement implementation based on the lean six sigma methodology. He joins Embraer directly from Siemens Energy, a top player in the global power plant development field, where he was responsible for steam turbine and generator programs process improvements from proposal through program execution.
Krull previously worked at DRS Technologies, where he led a 350-person 24/7 manufacturing, depot and material ordering organization responsible for the production of aerospace and aircraft assemblies for domestic and foreign military sales. Before that, he held several positions for Lockheed Martin over a 20-year period leading project management, continuous improvement programs, operations engineering and manufacturing operations for producing various military aerospace systems.
“We are thrilled to have Phil join Embraer as Managing Director for our first executive jets assembly facility in North America,” says Luís Carlos Affonso, Embraer Executive Vice President – Executive Jets. “Phil’s extensive background in manufacturing operations makes him the ideal leader for a start-up manufacturing environment with a strong focus on quality, process management and customer service.”
The opening of the new Melbourne facility is part of Embraer’s broader strategy of bringing operations closer to customers and to its largest market, as the Company’s first industrial site in the U.S. The plant will start operations with the production of the Phenom 100 executive jet, and will also include a state-of-the-art aircraft paint shop, as well as a first-of-its-kind customer sales and design center for Embraer’s full portfolio of executive jets.
The first phase of the construction of the Melbourne project – the final assembly area and paint shop – began in early 2009 and is advancing rapidly, with completion scheduled for the first quarter of 2011. The second phase – the customer sales and design center – will begin in the next few weeks, with completion to be in time to deliver the first Phenom 100 in the fourth quarter of 2011. When full capacity is reached, up to eight Phenom business jets can be produced every month at this facility.
“Rapid progress has been made since the ground breaking in December 2008,” says Gary Spulak, President, Embraer Aircraft Holding (EAH). “In addition, each of the building systems has been designed with energy efficient concepts and the environment in mind. Throughout the entire process, a recycling program has been in place for steel, concrete, paper, glass, and even construction debris, which are successfully reused in other phases of the project.”.
