Inside the South Hangar: Spirit’s road to ten a month – Part One

First of two parts detailing the 787 operations of Spirit AeroSystems – MORE PHOTOS

At Spirit AeroSystems Wichita, Kansas facility, 31 737 Next Generation aircraft speed out of the factory on railcars bound for Boeing’s final assembly line in Renton, WA. It’s a noisy atmosphere amid the industrial symphony of highly coordinated operations. A quick glance at a calendar suggests that the 31 per month rate means one narrowbody aircraft manufactured per day, but with just 21 manufacturing days in a month, Spirit produces almost 1.5 737 fuselages each day, up from a maximum rate of 21 per month achieved on the 737 classic.

At that rate, Boeing and Spirit churn out enough 737s per year to completely replace the fleets of Southwest Airlines and Ryanair, the two biggest 737 customers, in just 24 months.

Spirit has earned a great deal of experience in building effectively to a high rate of production, but each 737 that leaves Wichita represents only the structure of the aircraft. A few blocks south Spirit is undertaking its most ambitious project yet, fabrication and integration of the forward fuselage (Section 41) of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner.

Along with this 21-foot long section, Spirit is responsible for delivering the pylons and fixed leading and trailing edges of the 787’s composite wings.

To date, Boeing has taken delivery of 10 flying forward fuselages, plus two test barrels for the static and fatigue airframe, as well as another – designated ZY901 – that quietly made its way to Everett in November 2007 for additional testing. Of those 10 delivered, six are for the flight test program, four are production standard. Another sixteen barrels are in various stages of completion in Wichita.

Spirit’s formidable challenges are the meticulous creation of each composite barrel it fabricates while simultaneously managing its role as a Boeing top-tier supplier and handling its own supply chain that feeds the parts destined for integration inside each forward fuselage.

Right now, Spirit is operating at about 10% of its 2013 target of 10 787s per month. Spirit CEO Jeff Turner recently conceded that with Boeing pulling from its supply base about once a month it is not exactly a regular production flow for his company.

“What we really need to get productivity is a production drumbeat,” says Turner, speaking at a September investor conference.

The pace of that drumbeat will build quickly if Boeing and its partners are able to overcome the nearly crippling challenges of the last two years.

Turner says that it is costing his company between $10-15 million per month to keep the 787 running at this low rate as it prepares to begin ramping up in 2010. So far, the company has wound 26 barrels, the most recent one to avoid passing the expiration date of the composite tape it has in storage.

Spirit, Turner says, has the floor space to meet 10 a month on 787, and now with the company’s new dual-headed automated fiber placement machine, Spirit can wind at least seven barrels per month as the rate rises.

As the company works toward managing the ramp up, there are two supply chains to Spirit. The first is directly managed by Spirit, and the second, known as Partner Managed Inventory (PMI), is managed by Boeing has been a source of trouble. Spirit’s interaction with PMI suppliers is limited to dictating the need and timing of deliveries.

Heading into 2010, Boeing is expects to begin ramping its 787 production rate in preparation for first delivery, now targeted for the end of next year. As the rate increases, each partner will have to improve productivity, delivering the same level of completion at an ever increasing pace.

“Right now,” says Turner. “We have all kinds of plans, all kinds of ideas of what we can do to improve productivity…I like to say it is like a snow skier. You can have all kinds of plans for going down the hill, but until you are moving, you can’t execute them and you can’t change course and those sorts of things.

“As soon as we get this production line moving, a lot of the plans we have today will come true. Some of them we’ll say, well, that that isn’t going to work and new ones are going to emerge. And that is what we really need on the program is some momentum so that we can make the improvements. We have tons of ideas.”