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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Lessons Learned
There are several lessons here for any company seeking to innovate:
- Be persistent. Many of the Boeing solutions were achieved after earlier efforts had failed. Many required tinkering and refinement. Don't stop before the goal is achieved.
- Consciously and consistently apply creative thinking to the problem. Get out into the world and survey unrelated industries for ideas. Work the problem by looking outside of the conference room.
- Develop teams to address innovation issues. Boeing's "Moonshine Shop" works full-time to address lean manufacturing productivity concerns. You may not need full-time innovators, but project teams can accomplish similar results with the right guidance.
- Embrace continuous improvement. Boeing has borrowed this concept from Japanese lean manufacturing, and it has paid off handsomely for the company. Never stop striving to make things better, faster and easier.
Sally Mounts, Psy.D, is president of Auctus Consulting Group, a Washington, Pa.-based management consulting firm.
