With demand rising for its H-47 Chinook heavy-lift military helicopter, the Boeing Co. sought to increase production and efficiency at its Ridley Park, Pa., campus while maintaining ongoing operations. The resulting five-year Chinook H-47 Focus Factory Conversion Program transformed the company's historic 85-year-old industrial helicopter production complex through several major capital renovation, modernization and new construction projects.
More than 1,500 construction workers logged nearly 750,000 hours without disrupting the existing facility's 24-hour, seven-days-a-week assembly operations—often working less than 20 ft from a temporary demising wall. When completed in April 2014, the project boasted a clean safety record, with no lost-time accidents or recordable incidents.