what we do Making a connection For this IT employee, the real work isn’t just performed on a computer Ryan Kiggins is a systems and data analyst with Information Technology in Auburn, Wash. In this Frontiers series that profiles employees talking about their jobs, Kiggins explains why he enjoys leaving the office to go out on the factory floor with employees and help them find solutions to problems. My goal is to spend as little time behind my desk as possible. By walking the factory floor with employees who rely on our IT solutions, I find that we are able to help them identify waste, see ways to improve what they are doing, and create positive relationships that make coming to work fun and exciting. I also want my customers to feel like IT is doing things with and for them, instead of doing things to them. Most people know what the experience of getting on a commercial airplane is like, but getting out on the floor and seeing airplanes being assembled is truly jaw-dropping; it never gets old. The sheer size and complexity of what we do as a company is energizing. What I try to focus on every day is helping the people who are creating and delivering our amazing products. I work with people from all parts of Boeing—such as Boeing Fabrication and the company’s product and services programs—to translate what they need into solutions that make their work lives better. People come to me with a problem of some type, and I will go out and meet with them, and find and deliver an IT process or solution. 12 Boeing Frontiers Earlier this year, for example, I received a call from a senior manager on the 767 tanker program. He’d previously used a software tool from my group that helped manage and track kits on the 787, and he was looking for a similar solution for the new 767 line, which builds both the 767-300 Freighter and the 767-2C, the platform for the new KC-46A tanker. I met his team in Everett, walked the floor and identified a solution for helping them manage their inventory. With slight modifications to an existing tool, we implemented a solution to the program in just 35 calendar days. It already has saved the 767 program more than 2,300 labor hours. In my opinion, this is the single most important aspect of software development—understanding the actual problem that needs to be solved. In many cases, the real problem ends up being different from what the person needing help described or understood. Then it’s my job to define the customer’s requirements in a way that they can understand. IT solutions are critical to automating our factories so we can support new airplane programs and achieve our goals to increase production rates by helping the folks building the airplanes do so faster and safer, and with better quality. n lauren.e.mcfarland@boeing.com by Ry an kiggins, as told to Lauren McFarland
Frontiers July 2015 Issue
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