Not that this happens often at aerospace giant Boeing, but the company recently deployed a wireless LAN (WLAN)-based location tracking system to keep tabs on all its high-value components and manufacturing equipment.
“In the factory, the ability to locate major parts and tooling on a timely basis is critical,” says Jim Farricker, chief network engineer and technical fellow at Boeing. (Vaho Rebassoo, CTO, computing and network operations, at Boeing, will participate in an lnterop panel on the future of wireless technology on May 4 at 11:30 a.m.)
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Quickly locating parts is difficult at times in Boeing’s Everett.Wash., facility, where 737s, 747s, 767s and 777s are built.The plant covers almost 100 acres, encloses 472 million cubic feet and is the largest building in the world (by volume) according to The Guinness Book of World Records. The site is also where Boeing is readying its 787 Dreamliner super-jumbo jets, scheduled to roll out this summer.
In advance of the 787 project, and to speed up production of its other aircraft lines, Boeing’s IT group last year began installing wireless location tracking. The technology will let engineers find and assemble the collection of airplane parts and tools - known as kits - more quickly and allow for better inventory tracking.
“It will streamline our production environment and make it more efficient time-wise and dollar-wise by not having to replicate tooling and pieces of gear,” Farricker adds.
