what we do Radouane Boukraa is an industrial engineer at Boeing South Carolina in North Charleston, where he supports fabrication of the aft-fuselage sections of the 787 Dreamliner. In this Frontiers series that profiles employees talking about what they do at Boeing, Boukraa describes how he helps ensure there are no disruptions in Dreamliner production. Growing up in Casablanca, Morocco, I learned early the value and importance of education and hard work. My parents taught me to set my goals high and have a broad vision, but I never knew that vision would bring me all the way to South Carolina, helping build the 787 Dreamliner. My primary responsibilities in support of the 787 at Boeing South Carolina include cycling all of the tooling, tools and fabrication carts the team requires to manufacture the composite aft-fuselage barrels. My group is also responsible for developing the production “bar charts,” or job schedules, for the production teams. A big part of what I do is identify and troubleshoot any issues that might affect production. For instance, if we have a tooling failure, that could potentially cost us days, not hours. We work together to make sure that doesn’t happen. I’m very engaged with the Employee Involvement teams from the production areas I support, and have participated in a number of Lean+ improvement projects. A notable one was the development of a process that reduced cleaning time of 10 Boeing Frontiers tools by 11 percent. That’s huge for our production teams. Boeing South Carolina is building three complete 787s a month for delivery here to customers, and is sending 10 aft- and midbody-fuselage sections a month to 787 final assembly locations here and in Everett. I love what I do, especially knowing that my job has a direct impact on our productivity and our success. Working for Boeing is a dream come true for me—and my parents are proud to see the lessons they taught me long ago being put to use today. My parents had the benefit of an education, and there were strict rules in my house about studying, mastering my subjects and preparing myself for future success. After finishing technical school I eventually went to work with a steel company as a maintenance technician. It was dirty, rough work, but I’d discovered what I wanted to do—manufacturing. When I found out about an opportunity to move to the U.S., I applied at the embassy despite not speaking any English at the time. I received my confirmation, interviewed at the embassy, and in July 2002 was on my way to America. I knew I wanted to pursue engineering, and after enrolling in an English as a Second Language course and completing some elective work, I enrolled at North Carolina State University as an industrial engineering major. After graduating in 2008, the year I also became a U.S. citizen, I went to work as a maintenance and reliability engineer, and later as a manufacturing manager. I started applying with Boeing when I found out about the 787 final assembly line coming to South Carolina, and accepted a job offer in June 2012. My parents love to tell their friends in Casablanca about their son who works for Boeing in the United States. I’m grateful that they instilled a dream in me, then gave me the road map to chase it. n robert.g.gross2@boeing.com For more about Boeing South Carolina, see story on Page 16. The road ahead This Boeing South Carolina engineer chased his dreams— and found the 787 by radouane boukraa, as told to rob gross
Frontiers March 2015 Issue
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