Duct Taping the Dreamliner

Flightblogger: Temporary Fasteners Causing Major Problems for 787
Program

Ok, so Boeing isn’t using duct tape in their efforts to cobble
together the first Dreamliner plane. But, this blog report I’ve
linked to says they were using:

“… over-the-counter parts and prevented assembly
teams from being able to document the location of these temporary
fasteners on the first 787.”

Why wouldn’t you want to follow the Lean concept of “building it
right the first time?” Boeing proclaims to be a “Lean” company,
although that has been fiercely debated here and on other blogs. It
seems like management might have been pushing people to hit a
deadline for rolling out the first plane (a ceremonial event,
right?).

Remember what Deming said about mandating quotas and targets. Does
this rob people of their joy in work? Does it rob them of their
right to feel good about doing quality work?

As a result of supply chain problems, the proper fasteners weren’t
available. To this simpleton, it seems like you might 1) delay the
plane build and 2) fix the supply chain. But no, there’s too much
money at stake to admit a delay or a problem (of course, how much
money is involved with the liability of “forgetting” to replace a
temporary part with a real one?).

“Flightblogger has learned that many of the temporary
fasteners, which were painted red and installed in place of
flightworthy parts, were purchased from run-of-the-mill chain
hardware stores, including Home Depot and Ace
Hardware.”

Look at all of the extra non-value added work this has created as a
result:

“As a result, Boeing must now comb through the aircraft
to locate, document and replace all of the temporary fasteners to
prevent a single non-flightworthy fastener from
flying.”

They’re going to be inspecting in quality, eh? Do you trust that
they will find every single fastener with 100% certainty?

Quality is also impacted even if all of the temporary fasteners are
replaced:

“The second is the challenge in physically replacing
the parts. “Composite only like fasteners installed
once,” according to one source working directly with the
aircraft.

When it came time to install flightworthy fasteners, the removal of
the temporary fasteners damaged some of the composite parts of the
aircraft causing time-consuming repair.”

So which executives are getting their bonuses because the first
plane was, technically speaking, rolled out on time??

Am I being too cynical? Somebody who knows more about airplane
manufacturing, please chime in. I’m just a frequent passenger and
stuff like this sure worries me. How should we view this from a
Lean perspective? Click “comments” to participate.

Update: The
first flight is going to be delayed, partly due to the fastener
issues. MSNBC
story.