MRO Today - Feeder line works fuesl lean machine

Feeder line work fuels lean machine

by Paul V. Arnold

Denise Schrader-Keppeler is a perfect example of the hourly employee’s role in Boeing’s lean system.

A mechanic (the company’s term for production worker) on the fuel cell feeder line at its plant in Renton, Wash., Schrader-Keppeler does all she can to ease the job of 737 final assembly mechanics.

Prior to implementing lean, Schrader-Keppeler says, final assembly mechanics received bags of parts to install. Fuel cell assembly workers had as many as 950 parts to piece into the aircraft. It wasn’t uncommon for parts bags to contain duplicate or missing parts, which meant mechanics visited the stores area several times during a shift.

To install one complete fuel cell, it took two people on first shift, one person on second shift and two first-shifters the next day.

The feeder line concept changes all that. The line feeds the final assembly crew with subassemblies, partially complete components that can be installed almost immediately instead of tinkered with inside the aircraft. Work on each feeder line is balanced to increase efficiency and reduce work in progress.

Besides making, inspecting and pre-cleaning subassemblies (and assuring their completeness), feeder line mechanics design ways to increase the amount of subassemblies and decrease the total number of items installed by final assemblers.

Thanks to the work and ideas of fuel cell feeder line mechanics like Schrader-Keppeler, the 950-part final assembly chore is now 150. And, she’s bent on lowering that number. That’s helped reduce final assembly time. Instead of 40 man-hours for the fuel cell job, it now takes 12 (two first-shifters working six hours).

"Boeing is doing so much more to make things better by getting mechanics everything they need to do their job," she says. "I know how tough it can be on assembly when things don’t run smoothly. When I was out there, I’d constantly run out of nut plates. I made two or three trips to the store each day. That doesn’t happen anymore."

This article appeared in the February/March 2002 issue of MRO Today magazine. Copyright, 2002.