The Agusta press breakfast at HAI's Heli-Expo was an opportunity for the Italian helicopter manufacturer to talk about progress. In an environment where some are winning and some are losing, Agusta management produced evidence that they're in the first category. Agusta also continued progress in its efforts to reduce employment, with a decrease from 5,174 in 1998 to 5,059 at the end of 1999. As management reports go, both key indicators were solidly trending in the right directions.
Agusta management describes the company as organized like a network.
Five of the six Italian plants provide subsets of helicopters which are then integrated into final assemblies by the Vergiate facility. Similarly, subcontractors feed parts into the Vergiate plant. The Finmeccanica company believes that this system provides efficiencies because each facility can maintain a specialty of excellence. So far it's working. Not just the sales numbers but the backlog is also strong.