Preliminary Draft        4/21/2009

The 21st Century Jet

The Boeing 777 Multimedia Case Study

Abstract

Multimedia case studies have been shown to be an effective way of documenting and teaching best design practices.  This is a case study of the changes that the Boeing Commercial Aircraft Company made in the way they design and build airplanes.  The 777 is the first jet that Boeing has created using this methodology.  The changes were very dramatic and encompassed many areas, including technical, organizational and administrative changes.  Boeing is touting the 777 as more than just a product, but as a new process.  Although the technical innovations were numerous, what made the 777 project unique were the other changes Boeing instituted for this design/build effort.  It was the first 100% digitally designed and pre-assembled airplane made by Boeing.  Concurrent engineering, the concept of “Working Together”, was an integral part of the new philosophy and nearly 240 Design/Build teams were used through-out the process.  The teams included design, manufacturing, customer and supplier personnel from the start.  Designing and building a new commercial jet airliner is a long, five to ten years, and infrequent, one or two per decade, process.  As such, it is crucial to document the design/build process for future projects, especially one that had so many “firsts”.  A multimedia case study is an ideal vehicle for teaching engineers within Boeing as well as engineering students the design/build process of a large and complex product.  This case study is also useful as an example of the process of changing an established system in a conservative company.


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Special thanks to Professor Agogino for suggesting the topic as well as providing guidance and support throughout the project.  Thanks to the current BEST lab members who provided me with guidance in the preparation of the case study.  And to all those previous BEST lab members, whose work was invaluable as examples of completed multimedia case studies.  Thanks to Jorge Barreto who helped a great deal in researching and organizing the information. I would like to thank Professor Sara Beckman from the Haas Business school for the information she provided regarding Phil Condit and the Boeing 777.  I am grateful to Boeing for providing information crucial in developing the case study.  I am  appreciative to the many industrial partners who help in supporting the BEST lab and in providing the facilities and equipment used by the BEST lab members.  Thanks are due to my review committee, Professors Alice Agogino, Sara Beckman, and Gary Chapman, for taking the time to listen and offer suggestions for future work.


Table of Contents

        SUBJECT                                                                PAGE

        Abstract                                                                i

        Table of Contents                                                        ii        

        Acknowledgments                                                        iii

1.0        Introduction                                                                1

2.0        Methodology for Creating the Case Study                                3

3.0        Background                                                                5

        3.1 The Commercial Aircraft Industry                                5

        3.2 The Boeing Company History                                        6

        3.3 The People                                                        6

        3.4 The Airplane, 777                                                        7

4.0        Why Change                                                                9

5.0        The Changes                                                                12

        5.1 New Philosophy                                                        12

        5.2 CAD Simulation and Integration                                        13

                5.2.1 3-D Modeling                                                13

                5.2.2 Knowledge Based Engineering                                14

        5.3 Concurrent Engineering                                                15

        5.4 Design/Build Teams                                                16

        5.5 Business/Marketing                                                17

        5.6 Technical                                                                18

                5.6.1 Engine                                                        19

                5.6.2 ETOPS                                                        19

                5.6.3 Fly-By-Wire                                                19

                5.6.4 Testing                                                        20

6.0        How to Change Course                                                22

7.0        Did it Work                                                                23

8.0        Recommendations for Future Research                                24

        References                                                                25

        Appendix A:        Screen dumps of case study                                A-1        


1.0 Introduction

Boeing has been building commercial airliners since 1927 with the first Boeing commercial jet airliner, the 707, introduced in 1955.  Currently, Boeing jets dominate the commercial aircraft market and Boeing hopes to continue this domination with the latest addition to the Boeing family, the 777.  This success is even more remarkable when one realizes that the Boeing “Design/Build” process had not changed very much during the past three decades.  The system was antiquated, cumbersome, and inefficient creating production delays, increased costs, and spawning a huge bureaucracy simply to handle the paperwork.  Boeing was clearly motivated to bring this World War II era process into the 21st Century.

Airbus Industries’ increasingly larger share of the commercial airliner market was a major force instigating these changes.  Airbus had the advantages of government subsidies to help defray the costs of implementing best design practices, as well as latecomer advantages.  It learned from Boeing’s, as well as Lockheed’s and McDonnell Douglas’, mistakes and it did not have 40 years of bureaucratic momentum to overcome.  Other motivating factors include the need for Boeing to increase the income from the commercial aircraft division to offset the loss of revenue due to cutbacks in government defense and aerospace contracts.

This multimedia case study documents the reasons behind the overhaul of the design/build process at Boeing, the changes themselves as well as the methodology used in accomplishing those changes.  The information was collected from the general media including articles and public television documentaries about the 777.  In addition, much of the information was provided by the Boeing Commercial Airplane Company in the form of written documentation as well as video recordings.  The main effort of the author was in sorting through the information and providing a coherent and logical story that would inform as well as educate.  Since the case study covers many diverse areas including technical, organizational, business practices, and marketing, it is useful as an educational tool in fields other than engineering as well.

This case study was initially developed during the second half of 1995.  During its preparation, the author realized that there were many aspects of the process that were necessary to tell the complete story but could not be included due to time constraints.  Therefore, this case study is an overall skeleton with a few detailed sections in addition to many sections that need to be completed in the future.  Completing some of those areas requires enough work to qualify as complete MS projects.  The second phase of the project will be to enhance the multimedia aspects of the presentation.  At that time, input from Boeing in the form of a review of the case study and additional information will be solicited and incorporated therein.

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2.0 Methodology For Creating The Case Study

The case study was developed in several stages with the work divided  into distinct areas to allow flexibility for multiple authors collaborating on the final product.  The initial research work, layout of the case study and initial writing was done in a text format in order to give the multimedia director the option of choosing a suitable format for presentation.  The various options for presenting the final multimedia case study include putting the case study on the World Wide Web, a Macintosh compatible CD-ROM or an IBM-PC compatible format.  Each of ...

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