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Number of fasteners in Boeing airplanes:
747     3.9 million
777     2.7 million
787     1.8 million
767     1.8 million
737     .4 million
Projection of 2012 fastener use: 635 million

January 10, 2011 FIN – The Boeing Company executive in charge of the 635 million fasteners the airplane maker is projected to use in 2012 isn’t just overseeing paperwork.  John Byrne has toured most of the fastener manufacturing facilities Boeing buys from.
“There are very few I haven’t been in,” the director of common commodities and supplier management for Boeing commercial airplanes noted.
And what has Byrne seen in fastener plants?  Opportunities for lean manufacturing; he said in an interview with GlobalFastenerNews.com at Boeing’s Everett, WA, facilities north of Seattle.
The first 16 years of Byrne’s 24-year Boeing career were spent in plant operations, where he found “ample opportunity” for the aerospace giant to cut costs.
There are very few industries that have maximized lean manufacturing opportunities, Byrne believes.
Labor and energy costs for fastener manufacturers may rise, but the overall “operations should be able to improve” and thus offset cost escalation through productivity and lean techniques.
Byrne cited the transition of the Boeing 737 production to a moving line, which jumped from 28 planes a month to the current level of 31.5 — increasing to 38 in 2013.  That production increase was “yielded from just good, solid, lean manufacturing applications,” Byrne declared.
Boeing wants suppliers to make “appropriate profit margins,” but Byrne expects fastener manufacturers to gain through lean manufacturing rather than price increases to Boeing.
Byrne said Boeing recognizes the problem of metal price volatility and other costs to the fastener manufacturer and will work with them on “variable pricing solutions.”
Boeing can help level some of those variables, he added. As a major buyer of titanium and other metals, Boeing has some advantages in the market they can share with suppliers.

Byrne emphasized that Boeing knows the difference between cost and price.  “Cost is not the price,” he said in noting the importance of “total value” rather than “low cost.”
However, cost is “one of the key contributors to value.” Beyond buying the fasteners, the total cost includes the assembly cost, he added.
Byrne has responsibility for commodities, including such raw materials as aluminum, titanium and nickel. As part of his duties he in charge of standards, including mechanical, electrical and fastener standards.
“We want to take waste out of the supply chain,” Byrne told GlobalFastenerNews.com.
In 2009, Chicago-headquartered Boeing revenue totaled $68.3 billion and at the beginning of 2010 the company had a backlog of orders totaling $316 billion.
Innovations are welcome from fastener manufacturers, but merely suggesting increased capabilities without offering justification on how it will solve a problem is not a way to increase the price of fasteners sold to Boeing.
“We will only pay for value-added activities,” Byrne explained.

Selling Fasteners to Boeing
What is most important for fastener companies wanting to sell to Boeing?
“It’s our plane these fasteners are going on,” Byrne responded. Fastener suppliers “need to understand our customers’ need for consistent, high quality.”
There are not likely to be many suppliers of highly engineered fasteners to Boeing.  The multiple engineering requirements for aerospace fasteners “tend to place constraints on how wide a supplier base you can have,” Byrne explained.
Byrne’s staff of 30 conducts a “rigorous qualifying process, which reduces the number of suppliers.”
Other industries such as automotive can have wider supplier bases. “A procurement agent may prefer 20 suppliers, but that is not realistic in aerospace fasteners,” he said.
Byrne does want “two or three qualified candidates for all parts.”
An exception could be unique intellectual property fasteners where there may be a sole source.  In such cases licensing may be necessary.
Almost all the fastener suppliers are based in North America, Byrne reported.
“Fasteners are not a commodity for us to go to India or China for,” he said.  But an existing North American supplier may come to Boeing wanting to acquire a foreign-based company or build a plant elsewhere. Then Boeing “will work with that supplier to develop that capability.”
For fasteners and other parts, Boeing looks at a long product life cycle, Byrne said. The 737 short-range twinjet created a new market when it went into production in 1967. The Next Generation 737 took its first flight in 1997.  In 2007 – 40 years after the first 737 – Boeing celebrated the 7,000th order for the plane.

Future of Fasteners With Boeing
What is the future for fasteners in Boeing planes?
“It will continue to evolve.”
Strength and weight are key issues.
“Boeing wants to continue to simplify fastening systems, while maintaining performance,” Byrne responded.
Every ounce of weight on any airplane requires more fuel on every flight. “Managing weight is a tough challenge,” Byrne acknowledged.

The new Dreamliner 787 is a prime example.
Originally dubbed the 7E7, the Dreamliner will use 20% less fuel than similarly sized airplanes due to half of the plane’s primary structure being constructed from composite materials. A one-piece carbon fiber reinforced plastic fuselage section replaces 1,500 aluminum sheets and 50,000 fasteners.
Carbon fiber composites provide higher strength-to-weight ratio than traditional aircraft materials. Composites are used for the fuselage, wings, tail, doors, and interior.
Boeing already uses composites in commercial airplanes like the 777 and 747, and defense products like the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey military transport and the C-17.
Byrne explained that though there are half the number of holes on the 787 as the 767, that doesn’t equate to half the number of fasteners.
There are more highly engineered fasteners and more multi-piece fasteners, he pointed out.
Instead of one rivet that is just one piece, the 787 may have pins and bolts with nuts, washers or collars.
“The whole nature of fastening solutions has changed with a composite plane,” Byrne explained.

The Dreamliner – with list prices of $185 million for the 787-8 and $218 million for the larger 787-9 – took its maiden flight on December 15, 2009, and remains in the flight test and certification process.
The 787 drew a lot of attention to fastener supply problems.
Among the delays in production of the Boeing 787 in 2007-2008 was a shortage of fasteners. Byrne acknowledged the situation “exposed some gaps” in Boeing’s fastener ordering that it had experienced earlier with other metal products.
“We are going to manage fasteners more aggressively,” Byrne said. That includes “greater collaboration with fastener manufacturers. They have to understand our forecasts – what and when we need fasteners.”
If Boeing tells suppliers specific projections it “is better than asking them to speculate. It adds clarity for their production planning and inventories.”
“As a whole we can manage commodities more effectively.”
Beyond supply lessons, Boeing discovered the new fasteners brought other challenges.
“What we learned is that the installation (of new fastening systems) was more difficult – especially to remove and replace fasteners.”
A potential growth area for Boeing and its suppliers is the MRO market.
“We’d like to grow our business there.”
Byrne said the Boeing brand name is valuable to the aftermarket and Boeing has a “financial and moral stake in doing it right.”

Buy American Legislation
In the early weeks of his administration, president Barack Obama signed into law the American Recovery & Reinvestment Tax Act of 2009 – also known as the Stimulus Act – which expanded the “Buy American” provisions of the Berry Amendment for Department of Defense suppliers.
Boeing has “worked very hard” to meet the Barry Amendment for its tankers. “We have worked diligently with Congress to create a solution that meets the intent of the law.”

Working With Suppliers & Customers
Boeing and fastener suppliers “absolutely have to work together.” Communication and working together “yields the best results.”
Fastener requirements will continue to evolve in a progressive evolution.  “We need to continue to innovate ate. We can’t remain where we are,” Byrne noted.
As a large OEM, Boeing has a certain presence with its suppliers.
“We have the same thing happen to us,” Byrne refers to airline customers.
In 2004 the launch customer, All Nippon Airways, ordered 50 Dreamliners for delivery in 2008.
Currently there are 57 customers from six continents who have placed 847 orders totaling $164 billion.

“Pretty Amazing Engineering”
Beyond the pricing and scheduling demands, Byrne obviously appreciates what goes into Boeing airplanes.
“Very few people appreciate the amount of engineering in fastening solutions,” Byrne pointed out. “There are a lot of people who think just ‘nuts and bolts’.” The engineering of tolerances is “pretty amazing engineering.” ©2011/2013 Fastener Industry News

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