Going Lean Boeing’S Spokane Factory Has Boosted Efficiency By Paring Down Its Processes

Curtis Hampton’s work group at The Boeing Co.’s factory west of Spokane is called “Cell C.”

From 7 in the morning to 3:30 in the afternoon, Hampton, 44, helps build bulky composite parts called “drip panels,” which collect condensation above airplane cockpits.

Parked in front of Hampton’s work space the past two months has been small cart that he said has “everything we need.” These supplies include scissors for cutting Kevlar strips, rubber gloves, pens and a two-speaker radio.

The cart is assembled from workplace materials: peach-colored plastic tubes with black brackets for joints. The shelves are rescued scraps of airplane floor panels.

While seemingly minor, Hampton’s makeshift tool bench typifies just what Boeing wants its manufacturing process to be: simple, with minimum waste.

Hampton and many of his colleagues now have these carts close by so they don’t have to spend time walking to distant areas of the plant for supplies. And the workers customize the carts to their liking — reinforcing the idea of “lean manufacturing” that those in the front lines know best when it comes to improving their own efficiency.

Although Boeing has constantly looked for ways to improve its robust manufacturing operation, only recently has it embraced the idea of making lean manufacturing a companywide endeavor. Lean manufacturing was popularized decades ago by Japanese automakers and others, and adopted by many large companies since.

Boeing’s 394,000-square-foot Spokane facility also is one of the aerospace company’s best examples of the savings and benefits that are attainable when a mammoth corporation puts its production processes on a diet.

The journey toward lean manufacturing for Boeing’s Spokane plant — which makes aircraft floor panels, air ducts and cockpit parts — began in 1996.

The investment made to “get lean” so far has been about $2 million, said Tim Stevens, Boeing’s Spokane finance manager.

With the change, the assembly line style of manufacturing has been replaced by clustered work groups, called cells. Each group functions like a small business, following a product from its origin until it’s ready for shipping.

Lisa Duffy, an eight-year Boeing mechanic now taking part in a three-month “lean internship,” said this work environment is “not as boring.”

Duffy said workers feel they have more ownership of factory goods because they handle them through the assembly process and also are empowered to initiate some workplace changes.

As a result of the sweeping changes in Spokane, company records report that productivity has increased 85 percent at the plant since 1995. And in the case of the floor panel operation, lean manufacturing has enabled the group to pare its work space in half. Inventory now sits where the work groups once sprawled.

What’s more, the floor panel division has been able to take on work Boeing has never performed, because it is building more products in less time.

In March, Delta Air Lines signed a deal in which Boeing will supply the airline with all of its replacement panels - work that is typically handled by private contractors or done in-house.

“We wouldn’t have had the Delta deal if we didn’t have lean manufacturing,” said Stevens, noting that two more agreements are in the works.

The gains in lean manufacturing made by Boeing’s 580 workers in Spokane and in similar efforts elsewhere in the company so far have not been able to compensate for recent overall production problems.

In 1997, Boeing’s commercial aircraft unit lost $1.84 billion. And in 1998, the aircraft group had a profit margin of less than 1 percent on revenues of $35.55 billion.

A major challenge for Boeing is to build on its lean manufacturing achievements as the entire airplane production process is transformed. Success will be measured on the bottom line.

“That will be the next phase of evolution in our lean manufacturing journey,” said Dennis Racey, director of Boeing’s lean enterprise office for commercial airplanes in Renton, Wash.

Racey, who did not discuss specific financial gains Boeing has seen due to lean manufacturing, said sites aside from Spokane have found the manufacturing method beneficial.

A 747 “door shop” in Everett has reduced floor space by 30 percent, Racey said. And a unit that puts engines on aircraft in the Seattle area can now install two in the time it used to take for one.

Racey did not offer a firm timetable for when these small advancements will be implemented in the full production process. “Lean is one of those things that is a lifelong journey,” he said.

While that may seem like a vague response, lean manufacturing strives for continuous improvement.

Thomas Som, Boeing’s general manager in Spokane, said his factory floor has been through four major redesigns since lean manufacturing began, adding it will likely go through four more.

To help employees generate ideas for making their work as lean as possible, “kaizen” workshops are held several times each year - sometimes led by a Japanese consultant.

The cart Boeing’s Hampton uses for holding tools was the brainchild of a kaizen.

Yet, not all of the new concepts spawned from the continual thought stream are home runs.

For instance, a short distance from Hampton’s area in Cell C is an odd-looking workstation, built from the same plastic tubes and metal brackets as his cart.

The contraption is equipped with a 7-foot-long conveyor belt so a worker can load an unfinished cockpit console part, working as it slowly moves ahead.

While talking about the workstation, which is fully stocked with tools, one of Hampton’s colleagues walked by and said: “That thing hasn’t moved since its been here.”

Another co-worker stopped, stared and said, “I’m not sayin’ nothin’.”

Hampton noted not all workers share his own bullish attitude toward lean manufacturing, since constant change has torn down walls around personal comfort zones.

He added: “When you’re producing more with less people, that does have a way of putting fear in people.”

The most questions about the Spokane factory’s future arose, workers say, when the lean manufacturing changes began three years ago.

“We weren’t sure what was going on,” said Don Wimpenny, who has been with Boeing for eight years and works in the floor panel division.

And considering the Boeing plant here was running strongly compared with factories in other areas, Don Myers, the senior lean manufacturing manager in Spokane, said: “We were a healthy individual that went in for an operation … and that was difficult for some people to swallow.”

Bill Johnson, president of District 751 of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, considers lean manufacturing a good strategy for Boeing.

However, Johnson’s union, which represents more than 35,000 Boeing workers, including those in Spokane, said lean manufacturing needs to be implemented so both the company and its employees find it positive.

While noting lean manufacturing means fewer people producing more, Johnson said, “The biggest problem I have is educating our members and what (lean) means to them.”

From the union’s perspective, he said, Boeing must look for outside work to replace the workload that has been eliminated by the increased efficiencies of lean manufacturing.

A perfect example, said Johnson, is the Delta floor panel contract in Spokane.

“There’s a place for lean, and it has a real benefit for the company,” he said.

Although the Delta deal will save 15 jobs as Boeing moves forward with its cuts, the employment level here will drop to 490 by the end of the year, or 90 reductions in the next six months.

“That’s not due to lean manufacturing,” Stevens insisted. “We’re not selling as many airplanes.”

Stevens said bringing in new work is a high priority for the local factory.

“If I lay people off because of lean, they’re not going to buy into it anymore,” he said.

Johnson said it’s important that Boeing stick with its new manufacturing methods; adding that the company is known for new ideas that quickly fizzle out.

“Lean is a really good thing,” said Hampton. “because the term before that was, `What are we going to do this month?”’

Racey added: Before lean “there were a lot of different terms used to identify waste-improvement opportunities.”

Som, Boeing’s general manager here, expressed long-term commitment.

“If people ask me what we’re going to do in the next 25 years, it’s lean,” he said.