What we do Lifeline Manufacturing technology expert puts his love of science to work by solving safety challenges By Al Salour, as told to Patrick Summ ers Al Salour, a Boeing Technical Fellow and an authority on manufacturing technology, explains how a recent project to improve the safety of Boeing painters became one of the most challenging—and rewarding— of his career. My love of science started early. When I was 12 years old, I turned my bedroom into a chemistry lab. My parents didn’t mind—they wanted me to be an engineer and encouraged me to learn as much as I could in science and math. It was the early inspiration that eventually led to my job at Boeing 30 years ago. Today, I’m a technical leader in Boeing Research & Technology. My main focus is on sensor-based systems that manage and track the movement of parts, tools and other valuable assets in our factories. Thanks to these inventions, we can attach a small transmitter or tag to a package, for example, and the signal is picked up by sensors throughout the factory to pinpoint the object’s location. And keeping better track of tools or parts that employees need to complete their work helps us create a more efficient and effective workplace. I recently was able to demonstrate that the same technology also can be put to use in a different but important situation. The men and women who paint customer logos and liveries on our commercial and military aircraft often work on stackers, or platforms that can be moved up, down and from side to side, and can be dozens of feet up in the air. When working above ground level, painters wear a safety harness that is connected 10 Boeing Frontiers by a hook to a retractable cable. When connected correctly, the harness and cable, along with the stacker’s guardrails, provide fall protection. After a paint hangar fatality in 2012, my team and I were asked to investigate the use of sensor technology in designing a different approach to improve the harness-and-cable system. This was a challenging task; sensor and tag technology had never been used in this way. But knowing that we might be able to help keep a colleague safe was all the motivation we needed to keep working. This is the part of my job I enjoy the most: The company has a need and we’re able to find a solution where none existed. It’s using science and technology to discover something new. In designing new ways to do our work, I can talk to universities and research centers all over the world. I get to learn something new every day—and I have the opportunity to find practical solutions to challenges faced by our Boeing teammates. After almost a year of design and testing, we developed a system that automatically senses if a painter has failed to attach the cable to the harness. If the cable isn’t correctly attached, the system will disable the mechanical lift that raises the stacker. The new sensor system is in use or being installed in several paint hangars throughout the company and is being evaluated for use in others. This particular instance meant a lot to me because it’s for the benefit of our employees. Applying this sensor-based technology required us to work through a variety of technical and practical issues. But it was a solution that helps create a safer working environment for colleagues in a very important job. The result is we are improving safety, which makes this more rewarding than anything else I’ve done. When it’s time for me to leave Boeing, I want to walk away knowing that I made a difference. n patrick.a.summ ers@boeing.com
Frontiers October 2015 Issue
To see the actual publication please follow the link above