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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Sunday, April 21, 2002

Boeing tries to keep 747 rolling

By Allison Linn
Associated Press

EVERETT, Wash. — It isn't hard to find a worker in the cavernous Boeing 747 plant who has been making airplanes pretty much the same way for as long as 30 years.

Using a smattering of low-cost, low-tech gadgets, many dreamed up by Boeing workers, the aerospace giant has created what may be the world's slowest and least sophisticated moving production line. The company hopes the new approach will reduce production costs.

Associated Press

But a few months ago, executives in charge of the 747 program decided to try something radical: moving the airplane.

Using some low-cost, low-tech gadgets, many dreamed up by Boeing workers, the aerospace giant has created what may be the world's slowest — and least sophisticated — moving production line.

The plan is unconventional, but the impetus is not. Boeing executives and industry analysts agree that if the widebody 747 wants to survive against European competitor Airbus' planned A380, the company needs to find a way to make it cheaper and more efficiently.

"Our customers were telling us the airplane costs too much," said Jack Jones, director of manufacturing for the 747 program.

So far, Jones said, the moving line is still employing as many workers and costing about as much as before. But eventually, Jones believes the plan will make 747 production much more efficient, potentially rescuing the aging widebody airplane line from drifting into obscurity.

Boeing had already transitioned its narrow body 717 and 737 plants to a moving production line when it decided to tackle the 747's system, which had been virtually unchanged for more than three decades. Even Jones was skeptical. His reaction: "Yeah, right."

Moving the planes

First and foremost was the challenge of actually moving the massive airplane, which is more than 200 feet long and has a tail height of more than 60 feet.

Second, the company was intent on coming up with a low-cost plan quickly — the company gave itself just six months to get moving.

Third, the company faced the challenge of persuading more than 2,000 workers to change everything they'd been doing for decades — and, in some cases, that their fathers or mothers did before them.

"It was a very uncomfortable position for several of us," Jones said.

Jones quickly decided the only way to make it work was to ask workers for ideas. A couple came up with a simple system for pulling the airplane that cost just about $10,000 — millions less than the 737's moving line system.

Other workers offered different low-cost approaches, mostly using parts already available. A system of small wheel trolleys lets a line of tubes move along with the airplane, and scaffolding is crafted from already existing parts. Workers also came up with a plan for moving the engines in line with the moving airplane, saving the costly effort of moving the engine by crane.

"If this had been a management (idea), No. 1 we would've failed miserably and No. 2 we'd still be out there trying to figure out how to move the airplane," Jones said.

Talking to journalists about the changeover, machinist Jack Hake said the plan encouraged workers to take responsibility and ownership for the project.

But midway through the transition, Sept. 11 hit. A week later, facing a severe downturn in the airline industry, Boeing was forced to scale back production and began laying off as many as 30,000 people.

If anything, Jones said the loss of business "helped win over employees." As 747 orders dropped off, he said, workers realized they needed to get the price down if the plane was going to survive.

The future of the 747

Still, as Boeing tries to reverse the 747's fortunes, some analysts say the economic fallout of Sept. 11 might have already sealed its fate.

"Its hope for a few good years depended on a return to prosperity in Asia," said Richard Aboulafia, analyst with Teal Group. "I think, thanks to the downturn, the 747 could go away quicker than expected."

Aboulafia said he believes nothing short of a wholesale modernization will save the 747. Boeing has for now canceled plans to build the 747X, a larger plane which would've competed directly with the A380.

"It's an old plane and it's hard to compete with an old plane against a brand new one," said Paul Nisbet, an analyst with JSA Research.

Boeing is also competing against its own 777, which can fly similar distances and hold almost as many passengers, Aboulafia said. If Boeing's plan to build a Sonic Cruiser comes to fruition, Aboulafia doubts there will be any room for the 747.

After snagging a record 124 orders for the 747 in 1990, Boeing had orders for just 16 last year. This year, Boeing has announced just one 747 order.

But, with plans to introduce a quieter longer-range 747, Boeing thinks there is still a market for the plane.

"We think there's a lot of future in this airplane," Bill Droppelman, 747 brand manager, said.