Greensboro, 29 August 2024 – The ZIM Aircraft Seating Group is expanding the logistics of its US site. In Greensboro, North Carolina, ZIM Aircraft Cabin Solutions has commissioned a new warehouse. Materials, purchased parts and finished subassemblies will in future be consolidated there. This relieves the production areas at the site, which are now fully available for assembly and final inspection.
Why warehouse space becomes the bottleneck in the seating business
An aircraft seat programme consists of several thousand individual parts, from the seat structure through cushions and covers to electronic and attachment components. Every part is assigned to a configuration, a customer and a certification status. When order volume grows, it is not only the production quantity that grows but, first of all, the space required for safety stock, incoming inspection and picking. In the seating industry, warehouse space is therefore regularly the bottleneck that is reached before production space.
Relieving the production areas
Moving storage off-site creates additional room for the assembly lines at the main site. At the same time, goods receipt, storage and staging are bundled in one place. Parts reach the line pre-picked in kits instead of being stored temporarily in production. This shortens distances, reduces search times and makes inventory transparent across the entire programme.
A building block of the US growth agenda
The expansion follows the realignment of the US business in March 2024. Since then, Greensboro has been an independently managed unit with local decision-making authority, bringing together development, certification via the FAA Organization Designation Authorization (ODA) and manufacturing at a single site. With the Group's Economy portfolio, it is also home to the volume business, in which unit numbers and delivery cadence have a direct impact on logistics.
Statement by Yvonne McConachie, CEO ZIM USA
“In our business, growth shows up first in the warehouse, not on the assembly line,” says Yvonne McConachie. “With the additional space, we are creating the conditions to ramp up programmes without failing at the staging stage.”
