Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Of space and time

Honeywell, which helped establish the Tampa Bay area's high-tech roots five decades ago, looks ahead for space contracts as it puts recent bumps behind it.

By KRIS HUNDLEY
Published February 20, 2006

CLEARWATER - Since setting up stakes in rural mid Pinellas County nearly 50 years ago, Honeywell International Inc. has been one of the Tampa Bay area's leading high-tech employers.

In an area reliant on retirees and tourism, the government contractor distinguished itself for decades by recruiting workers who were highly educated, well paid and loyal.

But that stable, paternalistic corporate culture took a hit after Honeywell's rocky merger in 1999 with AlliedSignal, followed by surprise layoffs at the Clearwater plant and throughout the Aerospace division last year. Unnerved employees have been lashing out on Internet message boards and in e-mails, speculating about further cuts, plant closings and possible mergers.

The resulting climate has left Honeywell's site manager in Clearwater busy on two fronts: deflecting buzz of further turmoil and parlaying the manufacturer's half-century of experience into contracts for the next generation of space travel.

"My job is to grow this business," said Lee Williams, vice president/general manager of Honeywell Space, who supervises the local operation. "We've got programs with great opportunities and that's what I want workers to keep focused on."

In July 1956, after months of top-secret negotiations, Minneapolis Honeywell Regulator Co. announced plans to build on a 95-acre parcel "out in the country," at U.S. 19 and Ulmerton Road. Touted as the largest new industry in Pinellas County's history, the plant would develop advanced aerial navigation systems for aircraft, rockets and missiles, Honeywell's president said.

"We have chosen Florida," said Paul Wishart, then Honeywell's president, "because of its appeal to engineers and skilled employees."

By 1967, Honeywell Clearwater had 2,700 workers, 500 of them graduate engineers. By 1973, the plant's manager, newly relocated from New England, was complaining that poor schools and an overheated housing market in Pinellas were hindering his ability to attract engineers. At the time, average pay at the plant, which had 3,600 workers, was more than $14,000 a year, compared with a countywide average of $9,511.

By early 1986, Honeywell Clearwater had a work force of 4,600, expansion plans and a future closely tied to NASA's space shuttle program. Then the space shuttle Challenger exploded, NASA and Air Force funding declined and the growth curve in Clearwater started slipping into reverse.

Today, Clearwater remains the largest of Honeywell Space's operations, with a little more than 1,700 employees. The campus, with seven buildings on 70 acres, still produces sophisticated guidance navigation and control devices. Precision instruments crafted in Clearwater are key components in everything from military tanks to Sirius radio satellites to the international space station.

About two-thirds of Clearwater's employees are involved in space-related projects; the rest work on defense contracts. Among the plant's customers are Lockheed Martin, which has a director-level employee assigned to the Clearwater plant, Boeing, Raytheon, Northrup Grumman and Orbital Sciences Corp., which makes launch vehicles and satellites for military and commercial use.

While some of the work in Clearwater is highly classified, many of its instruments play a critical, though nearly invisible role in well-known space and defense programs.

Workers in Clearwater developed and continually upgrade the space shuttle's main engine controls, powerful pumps that regulate the amount of liquid hydrogen released into the engines during takeoff.

"These pumps could fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool in 20 seconds," said Williams, 57, who was trained as an electrical engineer. "Astronauts come by and thank us for those controllers."

Another source of pride at Honeywell Clearwater is a flat-black domed metal cylinder slightly bigger than a crock pot. More than 40 of these "miniature inertial measurement units," or MIMUs, have been launched into space aboard satellites and deep-space probe missions, where they control and stabilize the spacecraft.

One of Clearwater's MIMUs is on the New Horizons spacecraft speeding toward Pluto. "And it will put the craft in a slingshot around Jupiter to have it arrive on Pluto nine years from now," Williams said confidently.

Two more pieces of equipment from Honeywell's Clearwater plant have performed their assigned tasks on the historic flight, guiding the powerful Atlas V rocket that launched New Horizons on its voyage Jan. 19.

"Our devices put the rocket right in the bulls-eye of where it needed to be while traveling 34,500 mph," Williams said of the suitcase-sized guidance units, which dropped into the sea. "We've done our job."

While congratulatory letters from customers attest to the "exceptional performance" of the Clearwater plant's products, Williams conceded that management has been having its struggles.

Last year, as part of a restructuring of Honeywell's Aerospace division, 85 Clearwater employees from a variety of departments were shown the door. Co-workers, still shaken by the layoffs, said even longtime employees were simply tapped on the shoulder and escorted off the premises.

In addition to layoffs, Honeywell offered early-retirement packages to reduce the employee count. The upshot is that by the end of last year, the Clearwater campus had nearly 300 fewer workers than it had at the start of 2005.

Williams, who joined Clearwater as site manager in mid 1999, acknowledged that last year's cuts went too deep. The company had to scramble to meet end-of-year production deadlines and employees had to work overtime and cancel vacations.

"That was a hardship over the holidays," Williams said. "But we were able to meet our customer commitments."

Williams said the crunch occurred because Honeywell wasn't able to take advantage of resources at other locations as well as expected. Plans to bring test engineers to Clearwater from other Honeywell plants proved particularly problematic.

"These devices are very sophisticated," he said of the complex navigational units, which can take six months to build. "They need people here, who work with us every day and are available for multiple shifts. So we've made a course correction."

The Clearwater operation has about 80 job openings. While many are for engineers at salaries of $60,000 and higher, the facility is looking for entry-level assembly line workers.

Analysts who follow the space and defense industry are generally optimistic that Honeywell will remain a strong player, with its Aerospace division the leading contributor to revenues. Honeywell's stock also reached 52-week highs last week, closing Friday at $42.18. Last year, the Morris Township, N.J., conglomerate reported sales of $27.7-billion; of that Aerospace, which includes the Clearwater plant, contributed $10.5-billion. The company does not release revenues by location.

"Honeywell Aerospace is doing very well, no question about it," said Paul Nisbet, principal with JSA Research in Newport, R.I. "It's quite a diverse operation because of its old Honeywell business and the business they got into as a result of merging with AlliedSignal."

Nisbet said that although the merger under AlliedSignal chief executive Larry Bossidy was difficult, the wounds should be healing.

"They were very different cultures and Bossidy never did anything with kid gloves, so it meant downsizing very brutally," Nisbet said of the executive, who has since retired and written a best-selling management book called Execution. "But now they've got a leader who's much more akin to what they were used to. And he's doing quite well at pulling the two entities together."

Williams, who was with Honeywell's Industrial Controls division in Europe before coming to Clearwater, said Honeywell International's chairman and chief executive, Dave Cote, visited the plant last fall.

"He asked, "Why are you in our portfolio?' " he said. "But after going through our numbers, he said, "How can we do more here?' "

Williams said Honeywell's top executive were impressed with the Clearwater plant's return on investment, though he declined to disclose figures. He said Clearwater has a reputation for highly disciplined employees, able to produce equipment that operates trouble-free for up to 20 years in space. "It's almost the ultimate of manufacturing processes in terms of the degree of detail," he said.

Finally, Williams said, Clearwater distinguishes itself by technology that has proved reliable on everything from the Pluto-bound spacecraft to Black Hawk helicopters in Iraq.

Encouraged by corporate, Williams is looking for new business. He hopes to bring production of new fiber-optic gyros developed for the Navy to Clearwater this year.

He expects continued production on a new mobile launch tracking system, developed over the past six years in conjunction with the Air Force. Five of the truck-mounted systems, which can fit in a C-17 cargo jet, have been delivered at $15-million each.

But Williams doesn't hide the fact that his No. 1 priority is making sure Honeywell Clearwater has a role making avionics for the crew exploration vehicle, which is slated to replace the space shuttle. Honeywell is partnering with Lockheed Martin on one CEV proposal and has bids to provide parts on competitors' plans. NASA is expected to make a selection by midyear.

"That's what I live and breathe now," Williams said of the postshuttle competition. "We hope to have a role no matter what happens."

Kris Hundley can be reached at hundley@sptimes.com or 727 892-2996.

[Last modified February 17, 2006, 19:32:02]