The Boeing 737 jet is the world’s most popular and reliable commercial airliner. The company has manufactured over 6000 jets in the 737 family. The latest model, the 737-900ER, was launched in 2005 and can carry more passengers over a further range than any previous model. According to a press release from 27 January, 2005, Boeing adopted lean manufacturing techniques on this 737 model, the end result of which is one of the shortest assembly times of any commercial aircraft – just 11 days.

Lean manufacturing is a production philosophy which treats the use of resources on anything other than value creation as wasteful, e.g. waiting time, transport delays, defects. At Boeing, the assembly time has been cut in half since 1999. A just-in-time approach is contained within the principles of lean manufacturing. For the 737 series, Boeing reports a reduction in work in progress inventory of 55 per cent and a reduction of 59 per cent in stored parts and components inventory.

Questions 

1 Do you think Boeing made changes to its assembly line to assist its lean manufacturing efforts?

2 How might the JIT approach at Boeing help its customers (i.e. airlines)?