The company's success at constantly improving its manufacturing processes eliminates 34 days of airplane-assembly time -- and helps Boeing thrive in a highly competitive industry.
Boeing has an innovation culture, and the results underscore how innovative thinking can be adopted -- if employees are encouraged to be creative, disciplined and persistent.
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In 1998, Boeing Co. (IW 500/16) needed 71 days to assemble its behemoth 777. Now it only needs 37. The company also has shaved nine days off the final assembly of its best-selling 737, going from 20 days to 11.
How does Boeing do it?
- By looking outside the box to solve every conceivable production problem and bottleneck.
- By exploring far-fetched ideas and concepts and discussing them in teams until they make sense.
- By persisting until a problem is solved.
Boeing has an innovation culture, and the results underscore how innovative thinking can be adopted -- if employees are encouraged to be creative, disciplined and persistent.
