The Lean Journey at The Boeing Co

The Lean Journey at the
Boeing Company
Pilla A. Leitner, Ph.D., CQE, CSSBB

Lean Enterprise Office
Boeing Commercial Airplanes
BOEING is a trademark of Boeing Management Company.

The Road Taken to a Lean Enterprise
4Building the B-17 in World War II

4Quality or Productivity Circles
4World Class Competitiveness
4Just in Time (JIT) and Accelerated
Improvement Workshops (AIWs)
49 Tactics, an integrated strategy
4The Boeing Production System
LeitnerT213 The Lean Journey at the Boeing Company

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The B-17 Flying Fortress
4First prototype from design to flight in less than

12 months
4NEED! As many as we could build, right now
4FRESH EYES! Half the workforce were women,
new to manufacturing
4NO ROOM in the factory

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The B-17 Flying Fortress
4Many methods that we now call Lean were

developed
PRODUCTION SOARED TO 15 PLANES PER
DAY!

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Fast Forward to the 1980’s
4After the war, sense of urgency ended. Waste

crept back in
4Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) was
embraced in Commercial Airplanes and in Boeing
Aerospace
4Dr. Edwards Deming visit, 3000 managers studied
Out of the Crisis

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Fast Forward to the 1980’s
4Dr. Joseph Juran visit

4Quality Circles, Productivity Circles
4Employee Involvement Program at 757 program
4Quality Improvement Center in Commercial
formed 1986

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Beginning of the 90’s, Beginning of Lean
4CQI Associates and CQI Specialists programs

formed, disbanded
4Statistical Process Control (SPC)
4Variability Reduction (VR) on military side in
response to end of “cost-plus” contracts
4Hardware Variability Control (HVC) on
commercial airplanes side

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Japan Study Tour and World Class
Competitiveness
4Managers benchmarked eight Japanese

companies
4Trip preparation included 45 classroom hours and
5 books
4Each company was “World-Class” in something
4Boeing hired DeltaPoint consultants to help
develop World Class Competitiveness training
4Training for all 100,000 employees in Boeing,
taught by the managers
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Lean Tools Begin to Be Implemented
45S – Sort, Simplify, Sweep, Standardize, Self-

Discipline
4Other Lean tools, such as Just In Time (JIT) seen
as competing initiatives
4Propulsion Systems Division (PSD) implemented
full-blown Lean strategy
4PSD hired BoozAllen consultants to develop Lean
manufacturing assessment

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Shingijutsu Consultants
4Boeing participated in Wiremold / Pratt & Whitney

Lean workshops, and met Shingijutsu consultants
4Senseis Iwata and Nakao were protégés of Taiichi
Ohno, father of the Toyota Production System, and
founders of Shingijutsu consultants.
41995 first Shingijutsu Japan Kaizen tour
4Managers traveled to Japan to study Toyota
Production System, hosted by Shingijutsu

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Number of Managers Attending
Shingijutsu Kaizen Seminars
Japan Shingijutsu Seminars
400
No. of Participants
300
200
100
0
1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004
Year
Visits peaked in 1998-1999, as Boeing became familiar with the

Toyota Production System. Visits decreased as Boeing matured.
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Shingijutsu-led Events
4From 1995 to 1998, the focus was on conducting

Accelerated Improvement Workshops (AIWs)
4In the first two months of 1997, Boeing conducted
100 AIWs
4Shingijutsu began showing Boeing other Lean
tools
4Production preparation process (3Ps)
4Distribution kaizens
4Heijunka
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Weeks of Shingijutsu Consultants’ Visits
Shingijutsu Weeks
350
300
250
No. of Weeks
200
150
100
50
1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004
Year
As Boeing matured, the number of weeks of consultants’ use

decreased, but will probably never drop to zero.
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Turn of the Century (2000)
4Commercial Airplanes starts Six Sigma with

General Electric Aircraft Engines
4BCA Lean Enterprise Office incorporates Six
Sigma and Value Stream Analysis
4Non-manufacturing processes begin to become
focus of Lean

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Turn of the Century (2000)
4Boeing enterprise-wide Lean push

4Common Lean and Six Sigma training
4Enterprise-wide Lean leadership (Process Action
Team)
4Coffee game at Boeing
Leadership Center for
executive training

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Development of 9 Tactics
Roadmap to Achieve Continuous Flow
1. Understand how value flows
2. Balance the line 4. Put visual controls in place
3. Standardize work procedures
5. Put everything at point of use
6. Establish feeder lines
al
trols
7. Radically re-design products and processes

8. Convert to a pulse line
9. Convert to a moving line.
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Moving Lines
4Automobile production technique applied to

airplanes
4717 Final Assembly pulsed in November 2000,
moved in September 2001
4737 Final Assembly moved in April 2001
4757 Final Assembly moved in August 2002
4Major subassemblies have moving lines
4F/A-22 wing assembly
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737 Moving Line

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Focus Outside the Four Walls
4If customers succeed, they’ll buy more

4IDS Lean Office consults with military bases
4BCA Lean Office teaches Lean to airlines
4BCA Field Service works joint Six Sigma projects
with airline customers
4If suppliers succeed, Boeing benefits
4Mexmil, potential Toyoda-Boshuku relationship

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Evolution of the Boeing Production
System House
4Boeing customized the Toyota Production
System house into the Boeing Production
System (BPS) house.
4This visual aid showed the entire company how
the various pieces of Lean all fit together.

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System House - 2000
It had a fulcrum and the nine internal blocks as a guide to

developing toward a “Pull System” of production
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System House - 2003
Base expanded to emphasize 5S as the foundation of the BPS house. New

in Autonomation pillar: Do not accept, produce or pass on defects
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System House - 2005
Re-emphasized the elimination of waste in the foundation

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Timeline of the Lean Journey at Boeing
1980 1986 1992

•Productivity •BCAG Total Quality •World Class Competitiveness 1994
Circles Process Training •Accelerated
•757 •Managing Quality •5S Improvement
Productivity Seminar •Management by Policy/Cross Workshops
Program •Conway Seminars Functional Mgt/Daily Mgt (AIW)
•Dr. Edwards Deming •Process Management/Work
(Wichita) Management
•Boeing Arnprior JIT Initiative
1993
1990-1991 •Fabrication
•Japan Study
1984 Division JIT Pilot
1978 Missions •Rapid JIT
•Dr. Joseph Juran
•Fab Division •CQI as the Implementation
(Boeing Aerospace)
Productivity Management Workshops
•BAC QIC formed
Circles System •PSD JIT Pilot
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Timeline of the Lean Journey at Boeing
1996
•Lean Manufacturing 2001
Assessment (LMA) 1998 •717, 737 F/A 2003
•Shingijutsu kaizen •DeltaIV Develops Moving Lines •LMAs
training in Japan Lean Plan •VSA, Six implemented
•Lean Manufacturing •S&C Lean Sigma and LEO across 26 IDS
Office created from QIC Kickoff groups merged sites
•BCA Lean Kickoff
1995
•Manufacturing
Leadership Summit 2000
•North Amer. MBU •717 Pulsed Line 2005
•9 Tactics 2002 •Shingo Prize
Trip
•Womack Visit
1997 •Began Six •757 awarded to
•A&M Lean Sigma Moving Mesa and St.
•Boeing Wichita JIT Line
Kickoff Charles sites
Startup
•First Shingijutsu
Japan Kaizen Seminar
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Results from Boeing’s Defense Side
4Mesa, Arizona Apache helicopter program

4Build hours 67% down, cycle time 69% down,
defects 90% down
4Site awarded 2004-5 Shingo Prize
4St. Charles, Missouri Joint Direct Attack
Munitions program
4Increased inventory turns from 3 to 78
4Site awarded 2004-5 Shingo Prize

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Results from Commercial Fabrication
4Commercial Airplanes parts plants reduced

inventory by $1 billion in 1999
4Spokane, Washington floor panel manufacturing
plant
4Manufacturing cycle time down 60%, floor
space 50%

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Results from Commercial Final Assembly
4Renton, Washington 737 program

4Factory cycle time down 46%, stores inventory
down 59%, work-in-progress inventory down
55%, and factory footprint down 21%.
4Five years ago, flow time in Final Assembly was
22 days. It is now 11 days, with a goal of 8 days.

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Lessons from the Road
4Success at Lean is largely due

to the personalities of the leaders.
4Zealots put themselves at risk professionally
4Leaders that will engage in Lean themselves
must be positioned in the right places
4Even if you think you have institutionalized
something, if leadership backs off its support, the
workforce backs off

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Lessons from the Road
4Measuring activity pushes people

to learn and do Lean
4Make point improvements. Connect them into
flow improvements. Connect those into system
improvements.
4External eyes (consultants) are necessary
4Internal and external pressures are essential

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Acknowledgements/References
4Dan Becker, John Black, Ross Bogue, Elizabeth Girdler, Craig

Habakangas, Mike Herscher, Larry Loftis, Jan Martinson,
Dennis Racey, and Bill Vogt for input, Carolyn Corvi for
leadership, Leslie Garrison for editing, Michael Erickson
graphics
4Black, John R. 1998. A World Class Production System, Crisp
Management Library
4Dec 2004/Jan 2005. High Speed Performance, In Boeing
Frontiers Magazine, vol 3, issue 8 available online at
http://www.boeing.com/news/frontiers/archive/2004/december/i_ca1.html
4A Historical Perspective, Moving Final Assembly Line
Production and Implementing Lean Practices, available online
at http://www.boeing.com/commercial/initiatives/lean/lean_summary.html
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The Lean Journey at the

Pilla A. Leitner, Ph.D., CQE, CSSBB

BOEING is a trademark of Boeing Management Company.

4Building the B-17 in World War II

LeitnerT213 The Lean Journey at the Boeing Company

4First prototype from design to flight in less than

LeitnerT213 The Lean Journey at the Boeing Company

4Many methods that we now call Lean were

LeitnerT213 The Lean Journey at the Boeing Company

4After the war, sense of urgency ended. Waste

LeitnerT213 The Lean Journey at the Boeing Company

4Dr. Joseph Juran visit

LeitnerT213 The Lean Journey at the Boeing Company

4CQI Associates and CQI Specialists programs

LeitnerT213 The Lean Journey at the Boeing Company

4Managers benchmarked eight Japanese

45S – Sort, Simplify, Sweep, Standardize, Self-

LeitnerT213 The Lean Journey at the Boeing Company

4Boeing participated in Wiremold / Pratt & Whitney

LeitnerT213 The Lean Journey at the Boeing Company

Visits peaked in 1998-1999, as Boeing became familiar with the

4From 1995 to 1998, the focus was on conducting

As Boeing matured, the number of weeks of consultants’ use

4Commercial Airplanes starts Six Sigma with

LeitnerT213 The Lean Journey at the Boeing Company

4Boeing enterprise-wide Lean push

LeitnerT213 The Lean Journey at the Boeing Company

7. Radically re-design products and processes

4Automobile production technique applied to

LeitnerT213 The Lean Journey at the Boeing Company

4If customers succeed, they’ll buy more

LeitnerT213 The Lean Journey at the Boeing Company

LeitnerT213 The Lean Journey at the Boeing Company

It had a fulcrum and the nine internal blocks as a guide to

Base expanded to emphasize 5S as the foundation of the BPS house. New

Re-emphasized the elimination of waste in the foundation

1980 1986 1992

4Mesa, Arizona Apache helicopter program

LeitnerT213 The Lean Journey at the Boeing Company

4Commercial Airplanes parts plants reduced

LeitnerT213 The Lean Journey at the Boeing Company

4Renton, Washington 737 program

LeitnerT213 The Lean Journey at the Boeing Company

4Success at Lean is largely due

LeitnerT213 The Lean Journey at the Boeing Company

4Measuring activity pushes people

LeitnerT213 The Lean Journey at the Boeing Company

4Dan Becker, John Black, Ross Bogue, Elizabeth Girdler, Craig

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