Replicating excellence Reusing inventions across Boeing makes the company more competitive By Elizabeth S. Davis Jan Vandenbrande and his colleagues at Boeing Research & Technology want to help engineers more efficiently spend their time building better products. That’s why they developed Design Explorer—and then helped spread it across Boeing. It’s a software program that helps existing simulation software find the best possible solutions to challenging design problems. And the program is versatile enough to be used not only to design airplanes and their components but also to help find the best paths forward on matters that don’t relate to aerodynamics or parts design. It even is being used, for example, to efficiently manage spares inventory. “Finding the best solution is innate to almost anything all of us do. So tools like Design Explorer are worth replicating because they strengthen Boeing by helping people quickly discover that solution,” said Vandenbrande, senior PHOTO: Technical Replication Award winners Kay Blohowiak (left) and Jill Seebergh (right), both Technical Fellows in Boeing Research & Technology Chemical Technology, are shown with Vanessa Gemmell (center), sponsoring Environment Domain leader, in the BR&T Tankline Laboratory. Blohowiak and Seebergh are part of a team that developed a process for providing an alternative to hazardous surface preparation methods for metallic structures. MARIAN LOCKHART/BOEING 28 Frontiers October 2014
Frontiers October 2014 Issue
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