Flex Track tool, which uses flexible rails that hug the curved sides of the airplane’s fuselage. After the rails are in place, a programmable tool slides up and down to drill hundreds of precise fastener holes. The two mechanics monitor the automated drilling machine’s progress, instead of laboriously drilling the holes themselves. But they don’t seem to miss that part of the job. “The ergonomics are much better than drilling by hand. And with this, there’s better quality and improvements in safety and production,” Masset said. Boeing Commercial Airplanes is adopting advanced manufacturing tools and processes across its production and fabrication sites as a way to produce more consistent quality, prevent repetitive motion injuries and safety problems, and reduce long-term costs. In some cases, new technology is replacing tools and processes that have been used since the early years of the jet age. It’s a natural progression, said Walt Odisho, vice president of Manufacturing and Safety for Commercial Airplanes and companywide leader of Operations. He pointed out that other business sectors, most notably the automotive industry, already use much more automated manufacturing than Boeing. “As we see more and more competition in aerospace, I think we feel the need for it more urgently,” Odisho said. “Advanced manufacturing represents the best practices we can adopt in terms of processes and machines in order to make our product in a safer, more productive way.” Among other things, that means using technology to assist with more injury-prone tasks. It also means making production tools and systems that can be more flexible and programmable, Odisho said. Flex Track, in use for several years on Boeing’s various commercial airplane and military aircraft production lines, represents the early generation of advanced manufacturing tools. In Renton, Wash., the 737 wing panel assembly line, known as PAL, gives a glimpse of the next generation. By May of next year, nine PAL machines will be placed inside the 737 wing facility, each able to fasten stringers to wing-skin panels at twice the rate of the previous method, which used a combination of machines and manual labor. The new systems, which already are being used to build the first production wings, are designed to help the 737 and future 737 MAX lines as production rates increase. The machines reduce the number of steps, many involving manual work, said Brian Stewart, project manager for the PAL. Part of that process, he said, had not changed much since the 1960s. 18 Boei ng Frontiers
Frontiers May 2015 Issue
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