Page 10 - Canadian Industry Online

CANADIAN INDUSTRY ONLINE - OCTOBER 2015neurship within its culture, specifi- cally in Canada?Bombardier’s entrepreneurial culture is essentially built around two principles: expanding our presence in the most promising markets and chal- lenging the status quo through invest- ments in new mobility solutions.In the past six years, Bombardier has effectively penetrated the markets of several African, Asian, Latin Ameri- can, Middle Eastern and former Soviet countries. Our long- term growth is fueled by our ability to seize op- portunities in places like Ethiopia, where we won a contract for the provision of mainline signal- ling solutions, or in Thailand, where we delivered Q400 aircraft to low-cost carrier Nok Air.Of course, this expansion would not be possible if we did not have a leading portfolio of planes and trains. This is why innovation remains at the core of our mission, especially in Canada, where we have invested more than $6.3 billion in R&D over the past ten years. Bombardier is driving the evolution of mobility by developing technologies designed for the needs of today and tomorrow, such as our PRI- MOVE wireless charging and battery systems for electric rail and road ve-hicles, and in new aircraft such as the C Series commercial airliner and the Global 7000/8000 business jets.How do the company’s Cana- dian operations use new technologies in manufacturing to improve process- es?Bombardier is always looking for ways to manufacture its products more efficiently. Over the years, we have developed a unique expertise in laserwelding at our Transportation facility in La Pocatière,Québec. This allows us to reduce the weightand the energy con- sumption of ourrail vehicles, gen-erating additional savings for ourclients.Our Aerostruc- tures and Engineering Services business segmenthas also introduced robotics at its site in Saint-Laurent, Québec. Two assem- bly robots are used to support com- plex fuselage joining activities and two Automatic Fiber Placement robots are operated to manufacture complex composite components. This second technology provides unique capa- bilities in terms of advanced product definition and enables us to achieve superior precision compared to other manufacturers.10