After parts are received at the site’s Materials Marketplace warehouse and marshaling yard, they are organized and prepared for delivery to the precise spots they are needed in the factory and on the production line. New, low-sided vehicles and trailers that are easier to load and unload then deliver the parts and kits to the factory at regular intervals. Once the process is more routine, Woodard said, automated vehicles could make the deliveries. Deliveries are made as often as every two hours for a continuous flow of parts to the production lines, which reduces the need to stage supply carts and other pieces alongside the airplane for long periods of time. The shift to the Materials Marketplace approach launched at the end of 2014, so it’s still a work in progress, Woodard said. In the first few months, employees have identified and worked through challenges to implementing the new supply strategy. Kerry Snell, a first-line manager in the Materials Marketplace, said there have been some bumps in the road, but that was expected. So far, there are early indications that the new system is working, according to Snell, but more work is ahead. The changes to streamline inventory management have enabled employees to transfer to other jobs at the Renton site, Snell added, but no employee reductions. The aim is to have people working safer and more productively through new processes and technology that support record production rates and improve quality, not to reduce jobs. Shelley Phillips, a Lean+ practitioner for 737 Materials Management, said she and others in the program already have seen a “culture shift” as employees have started embracing the new system. She added that employees also have been willing to point out where improvements could be made or when things don’t go as smoothly as hoped. “It’s not a culture where anyone will get beat up over it. It’s about moving forward,” Shelley said. While Renton works to have the new processes and better flow of inventory and parts to the factory floor fully in place by the year’s end, the Everett and South Carolina sites have begun planning to change their materials management processes in the same way Renton has, Woodard noted. Meanwhile, even after decades of improving commercial airplane production in Renton, the site continues to evolve. “Change is no longer an event around here,” Woodard said. “It’s what we do every day.” n eric.c.fetters-walp@boeing.com To read more about advanced manufacturing, see the May 2015 issue of Frontiers. Photos: (Clockwise from top) Lavoris Hawkins, a material processor requirements facilitator with 737 Materials Management, works in Renton’s new centralized parts warehouse; Lourdes “Liz” Hathaway of 737 Materials Management checks inventory in the Materials Marketplace facility in Renton; Frank Hoffman, left, and Marc Johnson, both of 737 Materials Management, help manage the flow of parts through the Materials Marketplace. JuLy 2015 35
Frontiers July 2015 Issue
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