I 06 | BOEING FRONTIERS Kevin Schemm Senior vice president Supply Chain Management Finance & Business Operations Chief financial officer Boeing Commercial Airplanes PHOTOS BY MARIAN LOCKHART n this Q&A with Frontiers, Kevin Schemm, senior vice president of Supply Chain Management, Finance & Business Operations, and chief financial officer of Commercial Airplanes, talks about changes underway to win in the market, fund growth and operate as a healthy business. How has the market changed over your career? When I started with the company as an engineer on the defense side in Wichita, Kan., the culture of “value for the money” was pretty straightforward. Over that time, a lot has changed but some things have remained the same. Then, as now, our customers expect the most for their money. What’s different today is that for the first time we’re competing head to head in every one of our market segments and modernizing our production system, our supply chain and even our office processes to eliminate waste and inefficiencies. We will use those savings to self-fund our product development and be even more competitive in the market. Describe some of the changes that are happening in the factory. We have a number of initiatives underway to boost productivity and efficiency across our business. Some of this work is aimed at the fundamentals, such as ensuring first-time quality or designing cost out of parts. But we’re also doing new things such as using data analytics to better understand our production operations and pinpoint where quality errors are costing us money. This level of visibility has reduced rework, which is one of the biggest drivers of cost. Being able L E ADERSHIP M ESSAGE facing multiple competitors that are using aggressive pricing to win orders. What is Boeing, in particular Commercial Airplanes, doing to be more competitive? If you were to ask our customers, they would tell you Boeing products and services are known for their performance, quality and reliability— and we will make sure that doesn’t change. We’ll continue to innovate and draw on the ingenuity of our people and global partners. But we’re expanding the way we think about innovation. It’s not just about what’s on the airplane—just as important is how we put the airplanes together. And it starts with getting engineering designs right the first time, with the focus on producibility and cost. Apart from design, when I talk with our employees the focus increasingly is about how we’re adapting and The value of change From the factory floor to the office, even the simplest actions by employees can help make Boeing more competitive
Frontiers November 2016 Issue
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