The production system that promises to support a reduction in final assembly times for the Boeing 737 from 10 to 9 days this year should become still more efficient with the introduction of a new automated panel assembly line (PAL) by early 2015. Built by Mukilteo, Washington-based Electroimpact, the PAL fastens stringers to wing skin panels at twice the rate Boeing now can manage using the current process at the 737 plant in Renton, Washington. Electroimpact designed the machine to “normalize” to the panel with an array of lasers that “see” the surface without touching it, allowing it to follow the panel curvature or contour. The process improves accuracy, consistency and “repeatability,” according to Boeing.
The OEM’s existing machines in Renton install about 4,000 fasteners and mechanics install roughly 2,000, often requiring them to contort their bodies into unnatural positions. The automated system not only eliminates the need to perform fatigue-inducing acrobatics, it promises to reduce repetitive-motion injuries.
In Renton, Boeing has already installed the major foundations to support some 70 machine beds per line. Once installed on the factory floor, the PAL will use a monorail system to load parts rather than overhead cranes, eliminating wait time between positions.
The first PAL machine arrived in Renton in late June. According to Boeing Commercial Airplanes director of 737 business operations Beth Schryer, the new line will “ramp up” over time starting next year, initially operating simultaneously with the existing line.
“We’re bringing machines in starting later this year as we start the prove-out and qualification of those. This new panel-assembly process reduces flow, it reduces defects... the footprint. It gives us [further] capacity,” said Schryer. “It also is a great enabler for our employees to have a better build process, from an injury prevention and quality output perspective.”
Boeing estimates the PAL will cut flow time by 33 percent, defects by 66 percent, factory “footprint” by 50 percent and injuries by 50 percent.
The PAL promises to account for a big part of Boeing’s effort to raise its production rate from 42 to 47 a month by 2017, at roughly the same time it starts its transition from building current-generation 737s to the new 737 Max.
Dedicated Final Assembly Line
To make room for the Max, Boeing has begun clearing space in the final assembly building that now houses the east line. “A key foundation of our overall strategy, plan and approach on the Max is to dedicate a final assembly line to the Max as we bring it into our system,” said Schryer. “It has longer flows at the beginning than the NG and [as] we ramp it up, we will do that on a dedicated line, keeping our NG lines running as they are running today.” Eventually, the Max line will run at the same pace as those dedicated to the NG, she added.
Plans call for the Max line–the central line of the three final assembly lines in Renton–to incorporate three positions, where Boeing would build the initial examples as well as perform flight test installations and other miscellaneous items. Boeing has also begun the process of building a new systems-installation tool, where it loads and stuffs the fuselage sections with systems before they go to wing-to-body join, adjacent to the west line. In the process, Boeing plans to convert to a pulse system, creating what Schryer called an even more lean build. The process will involve three pulses on three separate lines, meaning it will hold nine fuselages.
Having reached firm configuration, the 737 Max design teams have begun the process of performing detailed designs, and Boeing plans to build the first airplane next year, fly it in 2016 and deliver the first production example in 2017.
Development Continues Apace
During briefings in April at Boeing’s widebody facilities in Everett, Washington, Boeing 737 Max vice president and general manager Keith Leverkuhn reported that engineers expected to release 25 percent of the design by the middle of the year, right around the time the first full CFM Leap-1B engine goes to test. [The first CFM Leap-1B began ground testing on June 13.–Ed.] Expressing “comfort” in the airplanes’ roughly 3,600-nautical-mile range, Leverkuhn said he foresees no further changes in weight or payload specifications.
Meanwhile, Boeing has completed 150,000 hours of laboratory development in support of all the integration of the new systems, new flight deck and new fly-by-wire spoilers. “We’re also doing a lot of mockup work along with the detailed design in our Catia 3-D system because we know we’ve got to be able to produce this airplane at a high rates,” said Leverkuhn. “We want to make sure that as we’re going through the designs that we’ve got the ability to truly build flawlessly at rates.”
One design element on which flow time management undoubtedly will prove critical involves the engine inlet. In a departure from Boeing’s previous practice, the company has decided to perform both the detailed design and the build itself at Boeing Propulsion in Charleston, South Carolina, site of a new assembly facility due for completion by the end of the year.
“As the engine technology continues to develop, the desire will be for larger fans, smaller cores, and I think that the people who’ve got the ability to artfully incorporate those engines that are going to look very different from the engines today…are going to have a competitive advantage,” said Leverkuhn. “So I think us bringing some of that capability back in, starting on the Max, is going to be important for our longer play, our longer [term] future.”
Meanwhile, Boeing also plans to invest further in its 737 delivery center, revamping the existing facility and erecting a new building adjacent to it. Designed primarily to improve the customer experience, the expanded center will feature upgraded offices and conference rooms, a new departure lounge, space for celebrations of milestone deliveries and jetways to the airplanes. Boeing expects to finish the new center, located at Boeing Field in Seattle, sometime next year.