aviation
Aviation Valley success story: MTU Aero Engines Polska
Poland - Rzeszów
06.2018 | mins reading time
Expert to expert: the key to efficient knowledge and technology transfer
It’s 2 p.m. in Rzeszów, Poland, and the latest GEnx turbine center frame (TCF) to come off the final assembly line is being prepared for delivery to MTU’s OEM partner, GE Aviation. Krzysztof Zuzak, Managing Director of MTU Aero Engines Polska, is supervising each step of the process. He clearly remembers the day in spring 2017 when the first GEnx TCF module left the shop. “It was an important milestone for us. MTU’s decision to establish an assembly line for the GEnx turbine center frame here in Poland testifies to the group’s confidence in our skilled workforce.” The responsibility for assembling this module, which forms part of the engine that powers the Boeing 787 and 747-8, was transferred to Poland from Munich, where the focus now lies on final assembly of the PW1100G-JM engine for the A320neo. Obviously, the relocation of a module assembly line of this complexity can’t be done overnight. Fitters who had worked on the TCF assembly line in Munich passed on their know-how to their Polish colleagues in a phased series of training sessions. “The knowledge and technology transfer ran just as smoothly as the teamwork,” recalls Jan Florian, production manager at MTU Aero Engines Polska.
A location growing from strength to strength
Looking further back, the successful relocation of the TCF assembly line is merely the latest step in the continuing successful development of the MTU subsidiary in Poland. Since 2009, when MTU Aero Engines established its facility on the outskirts of Rzeszów Airport, the location has grown substantially. So much so that in 2015 a new 10,000-square-meter annex was inaugurated. “When MTU Aero Engines Polska was founded, it had 200 employees—today that number has risen to over 700. The company undeniably owes its success to the strong working relationship on every level between the German and Polish teams,” says Zuzak.
Growing from strength to strength: the MTU Aero Engines Polska site in Rzeszów.
