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 The sky’s literally the limit for DesignBASE. Now even jumbo jets are a showcase for our talents after Air New Zealand Engineering Services sourced outside help to complete a mammoth undertaking earlier this year.
The major upgrade of the 747 fleet combined with the purchase of Air New Zealand’s first 777, had created a bottleneck for the Christchurch based firm contracted to fit-out the air behemoths.
 With the clock ticking, it was imperative to find subcontractors with skill sets, compatible software and the available manpower to tackle the job. Director Craig Haywood said our in-house systems were vital in coordinating design teams from the Nelson and the Invercargill offices.
“I flew to Christchurch to come up to speed with the client’s requirements and then set up base down here in Invercargill. The project was managed from Invercargill, with our resource pool located in Nelson.
Basically, communication was done through our wide area network which enabled the project to come together seamlessly.
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DesignBASE’s input was in the component detailing for the ‘monuments’, which is airline speak for ‘cabinetry’ in the sky lounges. Our team had to quickly come up to aviation speed, learning a whole new range of component tolerancing. Our metric training meant we also had to convert to imperial decimal to measure up with the American built Boeings. While our systems compatibility with Air New Zealand’s secured DesignBASE the contract, it was being able to complete the project to their tight time constraints which has cemented an ongoing relationship”, Craig said.
Air New Zealand Engineering Services design team coordinator Robert de Roo, said the total design, made up of 12,900 parts, including 2,800 totally unique to the Air New Zealand project, will be showcased at the International Aircraft Interiors Show in Hong Kong in September. “We see DesignBASE as an integral part of our business strategy”, Mr. de Roo said. |
