Honeywell Aerospace plans $500 million Tempe plant to bring constrained machining in-house

Honeywell Aerospace plans to spend $500 million on a 300,000-square-foot manufacturing plant on its Tempe, Arizona, campus, partly to bring constrained complex machining work inside the company. The company said in a statement on Oct. 28 that the facility will open in late 2028 and create approximately 600 jobs over time.

Honeywell tied the plant directly to a supply problem. The facility will add "internal complex machining capability," which the company called "a key area of the supply base that is currently constrained," and will establish a more vertically integrated production system for its next generation of products, including Assure advanced actuation systems and Attune vapor cycle cooling subsystems.

The demand behind the decision is specific. According to the statement, the plant will support $15 billion in Control Systems new program wins as well as growth on existing programs. It will also provide capacity for priority production of the defense technologies covered by a supplier framework agreement Honeywell signed with the Department of War in March.

The facility is being designed around automation. Honeywell said it will include an integrated digital production system, modular robotics, automated inspection and digital twins, tied together by an end-to-end digital thread. The company described the 600 positions as "increasing the company's engineering depth and its skilled workforce." Construction is expected to support more than 1,000 local jobs, it said. For scale, Honeywell Aerospace employs more than 36,000 people worldwide.

That combination, a heavily automated plant whose stated purpose includes doing machining work in-house, points to a hiring mix weighted toward engineers and skilled production staff rather than large assembly crews, though the company has not described the roles in detail.

Honeywell also cast the investment as a result of its new independence. Honeywell Aerospace became an independent, publicly traded company on June 29, when it was spun off from Honeywell. "This is an example of how our recent spin into an independent, publicly-traded Honeywell Aerospace allows us to make decisions and investments that support our growth and the future of aviation and defense," Jim Currier, its president and chief executive, said in the statement. The plant was announced the same day the company reported third-quarter results and declared its first quarterly cash dividend, of $0.40 per share.

Tempe Mayor Corey Woods called the project "the largest aerospace investment in Tempe's history," according to 12News. The existing Tempe campus sits near Priest Drive and Warner Road, close to the company's Phoenix headquarters, the station reported.

Earlier this year, Honeywell said it was expanding manufacturing of F124 jet engines at its Phoenix campus, 12News reported.

The jobs are not immediate: the plant is due to open in late 2028, and the 600 positions are expected to arrive "over time."