Continental Motors will build a new plant in Mobile, Alabama, the company announced on Monday. The huge new facility, with 225,000 square feet of space, will house both corporate offices and manufacturing space, replacing 11 buildings currently in use across 44 acres at the Mobile Aeroplex. “The current operation being spread throughout multiple buildings, drives many challenges and inefficiencies,” said Michael Skolnik, executive vice president for Continental. Further, he added, most of those buildings date back to the 1940s or earlier. New manufacturing equipment will be installed in the new facility, including a special area for evaluating new manufacturing techniques and processes, including additive manufacturing and automation.
Along with building the new factory, Continental said it will build a new infrastructure for customer and technical service that will enable the company to assist customers anywhere in the world using phone, email and app support, anytime, day or night. Also, the company said it will increase its capacity to develop new products and expand China market access with a new engineering and design service center based in China. Continental was acquired by AVIC, the Aviation Industry Corporation of China, in 2010.AVweb’s editorial director Paul Bertorelli is on site in Mobile for the announcement and will report on Tuesday with more details.
