Guy Norris/EVERETT
It is five years since the Boeing 777-200 entered commercial service and 13 separate versions of the twin family have so far been certificated, with a 14th to follow by October.
But Boeing is far from resting on its laurels. Development of the -200X and -300X extended-range variants has begun, production is being streamlined to boost efficiency and a swathe of upgrades are in the pipeline for all members of the growing family.
Much of the focus this year is on getting the 200X/300X under way. "We've rarely had this much competitive advantage over competing aircraft," says Lars Anderson, programme manager, 777 Longer Range. He expects firm configuration in January. "We're going through lots of trade studies, but by then we should have decided on the major structural changes and all the performance parameters, as well as having all the interfaces for the aircraft defined."
Design release point
The 25% design release point of the first derivative, the -300X, is due to be reached in September 2001, with major assembly of the first aircraft due to begin in August 2002. Roll-out is expected in October and the first flight is due in January 2003. First delivery is on schedule for September 2003. The smaller -200X trails by roughly four months throughout.
With so much of the basic structural, aerodynamic and system groundwork done, the focus for the -200X/300X development is different from that for its progenitor. "We shall really be aiming at reducing the non-recurring work statement for the derivatives as well as reducing the recurring costs for all models," says Anderson. "We're looking at opportunities to move towards monolithic structures, reducing parts count and lowering weight. If it can be done on a sustaining programme before the X, then we'll recommend it if it makes sense."
Boeing is also tackling these goals differently than it did on previous 777 projects. "We're dividing the aircraft into volumes - forward cabin, wing, empennage," says Anderson. "We go by each of these volumes and have workshops to bring in everyone involved in build and design of that section.
"We take the whole team through the build process and rigorously lay out the touch labour involved in building those parts. At the first opportunity we see to reduce that, we move. We ask: 'Should that be kitted at the subassembly stage?' and so on. At the end of the workshop, we recommend design changes or supply changes that would cut cost and weight."
Brainstorming ideas
The process, like the programme, is in its early stages. "We started brainstorming ideas at tier zero, the top tier. Then we'll move to a tier one stage, such as focusing on a part of the empennage, for example." Anderson hints that the results are potentially applicable to all family members. "The engineering and manufacturing teams are excited about the opportunity to go and make a big difference - not just on the derivatives, but on the whole family."
Planning for improving manufacturing efficiency is also being tackled directly on the existing 777 line. These plans, dubbed the Dramatic Weight and Cost Reduction initiative, are essential to sustain the current family and to promote the competitiveness of the new derivatives. Given enough leverage, they could have helped secure the launch of the proposed -100X although this had been dropped at the time of writing. "There is huge leverage in cost, and that helps everything else," says Ron Ostrowski, 777 programme vice-president and general manager. "We are getting cost down."
Boeing's process councils review ideas for changes. The councils, which manage the company's skills and resources and allocate them where they are most needed, interface across the width and breadth of the company and deal directly with platform teams that have been set up for each model.
Platform concept
The platform team concept, based on an idea developed by Chrysler for the automotive industry, replaces the old integrated product team/design build team arrangement that once governed the 777. Each platform team is further subdivided into smaller teams that have responsibility for particular parts of the aircraft. The propulsion integrated team, with coverage of the engines and related systems, works alongside the main cabin integration team, the forward cabin integration team, and so on.
The process council concept aims to unify methods and processes across all product lines. The drawback was that new ideas were sometimes hard to embrace because they were "so contrary to 'one way' and best practices", says Ostrowski. "But now we are allowed to experiment on a programme level and even to have a proof-of-concept [POC] approach to prove it is better. There are things that we will do for the X which are drastically different, and we are pushing against the establishment."
"When you get to the point where the POC is positive, then you go to the process councils and say this could be beneficial to all programmes. Now that becomes the best practice. It is very dynamic now, but it took a while to get going."
Some new concepts are already bearing fruit at Everett, where the 777's director of operations, Tim Copes, is at the forefront of a "make it flow" initiative aimed at cutting cost and time out of production. The most visible metric of Everett's performance on the 777 line is flow time from the start of assembly to roll-out. This started at 130 days but dropped to 110 by 1997 as the learning curve levelled off. Thanks to the "make it flow" plan, this has gradually been reduced to 83 days, with a target of 71 days by 2001. Further ahead, the plan is to further cut this to less than 38 days, despite the growth of the family, which now has three main versions and will include at least five by 2003.
The feat has also been achieved using only one of the two production bays originally allotted to the 777, and it culminated in two periods - July 1997-February 1998 and August 1998-October 1999 - when production reached seven a month, or a rate of one every three days. "The original plan was final body join to roll out in 24 days using two bays, but we did it with one bay because we cut it to 10 days in 1999,"says Copes.
Although "make it flow" is concentrated within Everett's walls, Boeing knows that 90% of the cost of each 777 comes from outside. To spread the "flow" gospel, it is promoting "link the flow" to include suppliers, and "define the flow" to include its own engineering branches in reaching its ultimate goal of the "six-month" aircraft. Changes up and down the supply and assembly chain have created these savings, says shared services manager Ed Callahan. "It's closed loop learning. Instead of handing a job off, we learn about the impacts down the line."
Last year, Boeing began talking with the top 20 suppliers based on a dollar value and committed to work with 10 of them. As a result, even Boeing's own in-house suppliers, such as its composite floor beam manufacturing site in Tulsa, Oklahoma, have seen cycle time reduced from 41 days to less than 29 days.
Savings studies
"We're slightly better than that, although we have a vision of getting to 17 days," says Copes. Similar studies are under way to examine savings in everything from engine, struts and nacelles to fuselage sections, floor grids and inboard trailing edge flaps.
Outwardly small changes to standard procedures have made huge savings, says Copes. These include powering up the aircraft in final join. "A lot of people said it was impossible, but it is a way of discovering power problems early on." Others include system installation before final body join and the development of paddle fittings to ensure accurate and speedier final body join. The wide fittings replace standard stringer splices around the upper circumference of the fuselage, and will be extended around the rest by 2002.
Another initiative, dubbed "make it fly", is under way to cut the time taken to delivery from 19 days to 15. "They're arguing about whether the vision is 10 or 12 days, but we'd like to target 15 on the 777 by 2001," says Copes. With or without the launch of the -100X, it seems the 777 programme is again pioneering new advances for Boeing.
Source: Flight International
