PENANG, Malaysia—Honeywell reports that its avionics segment is resolving supply chain-related issues more quickly than its aerospace and mechanical divisions.
The company expects to fulfill all commitments on its backlog in the coming months. Its avionics manufacturing facility in Penang, Malaysia, is meanwhile expanding its capacity to accommodate the manufacture of future cockpit systems.
The Penang site is Honeywell’s largest avionics manufacturing and repair facility outside of the U.S., producing around 1,500 parts, including cockpit display units, transponders, radio altimeters and flight control systems.
Eric Ai, Honeywell's vice president for its Asia-Pacific airline business, tells Aviation Week that the facility’s location—close to circuit card manufacturers—has helped the company obtain access to important components. Honeywell has also created a localized procurement hub to acquire materials within Malaysia, which reduces reliance on other countries and speeds up turnaround times.
Comparatively, the aerospace and mechanical divisions are taking longer to work through their backlogs as they are competing with other sectors for Tier 1 to Tier 3 metal processor suppliers. In addition, some suppliers closed during the pandemic, and the process of certifying new suppliers to meet aerospace standards is a lengthy one.
Since fully integrating component repair and overhaul capabilities in 2022, the Penang unit has reported brisk demand for repair as production of new avionics components is faced with long backlogs. The site currently has around 30 employees dedicated to repair and overhaul. Honeywell has no plans to increase the headcount as the production bottleneck is caused by supply chain issues.
With a total of 28 lines, Honeywell Penang has started to license out the manufacturing and repair capabilities of legacy systems to third-party companies, freeing up space for future systems such as the next-generation flight management systems to be used on all Airbus aircraft from 2026, and potentially other systems like the Anthem Cockpit and Surf-A runway incursion alert system.
The Penang site has 90,000 ft.2 of unused land slated for future expansion, which the company said will not be limited to avionics activities.
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