what we do Patrick Brislawn is a toolmaker with the 777 team in Everett, Wash. In this Frontiers series that profiles employees talking about what they do at Boeing, he describes the teamwork involved in rolling a newly built commercial jetliner out of the factory— and into the hands of the customer. I’ve always been an aviation buff. Growing up, I built model airplanes. I loved to read books and watch TV shows about fast airplanes. To be a part of it now and have a hand in creating these planes, it’s a sense of pride and wonder for me. It reminds you of when you were a kid and things were awesome. There are two parts to my job: I’m a toolmaker and I’m in production assist—I help move the 777 out of the factory. We do the line move twice a week, 100 times a year. We have a team of 15 and I’m the team lead, and we work second shift, from 2:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. It’s less disruptive to roll out a plane at night. It doesn’t do you any good to build an airplane unless you can roll it out to your customer. That’s when the delivery process for our customer begins. You have to get them out the door, painted and down the road. We still have tools we have to make, repair and maintain so they can perform the actual build of the airplane, and that’s more satisfying. But, honestly, production assist might be more fun. We get to interact with a lot of great people. We get to move around big equipment. We get to be part of final assembly. 10 Boeing Frontiers What’s involved? We move a lot of portable work stands, and we connect and disconnect utilities. We have to make sure all parts are stored. It’s really a simple idea, but it’s really hard to do it when you consider all of the parts that make up an airplane. We have to make sure the floor is clear. We deal with crane operators, forklift operators, production mechanics, functional test technicians, parts people, paint and seal support, maintenance, engineers, planners, coordinators and the folks in the tugs. We’re responsible for the process, and rely on all of the different organizations and functions. It seems that Tooling is the organization that has to understand everything and deal with everyone. We’re at the epicenter of this process. Everyone is briefed on the set of tasks, so everyone knows what his or her task is, because it’s carefully choreographed. But it has to be done safely. You don’t hurry things. You don’t take shortcuts. There’s a constant focus on safety. The most difficult thing is the timing and sequencing. It’s making sure that everything is prepped so that if something gets out of sequence we can deal with it before it becomes an issue. One mistake down here can snowball and cause a ripple effect that’s felt down the line. You take things you learn from solving problems and turn them into processes. Processes survive challenges. It’s the nature of what we do. And flexibility is part of the job description. This is an interesting place to work because we have bigger “toys” than other people do at their jobs. I like the responsibility of what we do. It’s always a little different and it’s never boring. n da niel .w.rale y@boeing.com For more on how employees move a new airplane out of the factory, see Page 28. Ready to roll! Moving a big new jetliner out of the factory requires safety, timing and teamwork by patrick brislaw n, as told to da n rale y
Frontiers May 2015 Issue
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