Tokyo—The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd. (YRC) today announced that it signed a contract with Boeing Commercial Airplanes of the United States on April 16, 2002, to supply lavatory modules for the Boeing Next-Generation 737 family of passenger airplanes. The term of the contract starts in January 2004 and ends in 2010. YRC has supplied lavatory modules for the Boeing 757 since 1981. YRC will expand its production capacity by seven to eight times in order to accommodate production of lavatory modules for the Boeing Next-Generation 737, the best-selling jetliner family of all time.

In order to meet the new demand resulting from the contract, YRC plans to construct a new production line in its factory in Hiratsuka City, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. The new line will introduce a "lean manufacturing" system to ensure earlier delivery and lower production costs.
As an aircraft component, a lavatory module must be strong and lightweight. Customer requirements also include good maintainability and serviceability in addition to passenger comfort. In designing the lavatory modules for the Boeing Next-Generation 737 and 757 airplane families, YRC proposed a unified basic design and a reduction in the number of parts. "Together, we believe these enhancements will make it unnecessary for airlines to maintain a large inventory of spare parts," said Mr. Kazuo Nagashima, General Manager of Aerospace Div. of YRC. YRC also offered Boeing a significant change to the internal design of the lavatory module to improve passenger comfort.

YRC has accumulated various new design skills and manufacturing techniques through the process of development. "YRC believes those skills and techniques may be applicable to future airplanes as well," said Mr. Kazuo Nagashima.