The darkened room with large digital screens hanging on the walls and technicians staring at smaller computer screens is abuzz with activity, slightly reminiscent of a mission control center. Which it is, but the mission here isn’t a space launch or satellite deployment. This room, in Everett, Wash., is where a team of experts keep their eyes on the worldwide and ever-growing number of 787 Dreamliners operated by airlines. Around the clock, every day, the center’s team stands ready to respond to airline customers when any issue, down to a maintenance reminder, arises with one of their 787s. Some of the center’s employees focus on talking with airline and field service representatives when they call with questions, while others read and analyze real-time data being sent by the 787s in service. A mission director and “first responders”—those charged with resolving urgent questions or issues—round out the team. “It is a dynamic and exciting place to work. We need to be nimble and quickly refocus when priorities change,” said Bill Connell, one of the 787 Operations Control Center’s controllers. “There is always something to do in the center, but when a customer contacts us for a hot issue, efficient collaboration of the team enables us to respond quickly.” The 787 Operations Control Center, supervised by Commercial Airplanes’ Commercial Aviation Services, is the only such facility at Boeing dedicated to monitoring a specific model. “The Operations Control Center is really setting a standard for us,” said Mike Fleming, vice president of Services and Support for the 787 program. “The center creates tremendous value for Boeing in terms of the information we get. It also creates tremendous value for our airline customers in terms of the support we provide them.” Roxann Hirst, senior manager of the 787 Operations Control Center, said the center was launched in 2011 to answer questions quickly and provide support as airlines put the advanced jetliner into service. Now, in addition to supporting additional airlines putting the Dreamliner into service, it is providing vital information that can help improve the airplane’s reliability. “It is gratifying to play a part in the entry-into-service process, to watch the airplanes and the operators succeed and make the 787 everything we know it can be,” said Andy Beadle, a Supplier Management expert in the operations center. Key to the center’s mission is the 787’s Airplane Health Management system, which uses advanced sensors and communication technology to send live data from the airplane to airline moni-toring centers and the 787 control center. The system can alert airline officials and the operations center’s staff to potential maintenance issues before they become serious enough to delay a flight. “It is changing how we support our airline customers,” Beadle said. “When we see issues, we start working support plans while the aircraft is in flight rather than waiting until after landing and troubleshooting have occurred.” Hirst, who calls the Airplane Health Management system “the voice of the airplane,” added that in addition to providing timely alerts for immediate issues, the volume of data sent by the system also is helpful in the long term. “There’s a lot more information that we get from this airplane than any previous model,” Hirst said. “We can look at the data over time and use fleetwide experience to assist our customers.” That is especially useful as more airlines take delivery of their first 787s and aren’t as familiar with the airplane as those who have been flying it for the past couple of years, Hirst said. Also, as the operations center gathers more information about the airplane over time, that is shared with the design engineering teams and, through them, to Boeing’s suppliers. “This airplane isn’t as reliable as we’d like it to be at this point,” Hirst said, referring to the 787’s reliability rate of about 98 percent as of early this year. That means the 787s in commercial service had a departure delayed for more than 15 minutes due to technical reasons about 2 percent of the time. With the data it receives and tracks, the operations center can help pinpoint components that might need to be improved as Boeing learns more about the airplane’s long-term performance. Employees from a number of organizations within Commercial Airplanes are included in the operations center to ensure a variety of expertise is on hand. For example, the center’s Supplier Management representatives can PHOTOS: (Far left, top) A Boeing 787 Dreamliner. FLIGHTAWARE (Insets, from far left) Ravin Pierre, left, monitors airplanes in the 787 Operations Control Center while Cam Carnegie, a mission director at the center, looks on; Roxann Hirst, from left, senior manager of the 787 Operations Control Center, along with Dale Miles, an operations center controller, and airplane monitor Wistremundo Dones, consult one of the center’s information screens; Dones; Hirst; Carnegie, clockwise from left, Will Fant, a systems generalist, Tom McCleave, a service engineer, and Pierre. BOB FERGUSON/BOEING Frontiers March 2014 29
Frontiers March 2014 Issue
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