Design Integration Across a Global Enterprise
by Jim D. Green, Principal Engineer, Boeing Commercial Airplanes

Introduction
To set the context for this article, here are Boeing's stated core competencies:

• Detailed customer knowledge and focus - We will seek to understand, anticipate and be responsive to our customers' needs.
• Large scale systems integration - We will continuously develop, advance and protect the technical excellence that allows us to integrate effectively the systems we design and produce.
• Lean enterprise - Our entire enterprise will be a Lean operation, characterized by the efficient use of assets, high inventory turns, excellent supplier management, short cycle times, high quality and low transaction costs.

This article focuses on large-scale systems integration across design/build suppliers.

Situation
Boeing has partnered with major suppliers to design and build large components of commercial airplanes for years. Integration of the design in a virtual world has been a challenge for Boeing because of the lack of robust, industrial-strength, off-the-shelf computing technology. Rising to the challenge and defining the leading edge, Boeing's own process/computing architects and technicians developed and implemented the required process and functionality to meet the demands of global concurrent product definition and integration. Capabilities included remote digital pre-assembly, design collaboration, digital product definition release and distribution processes. While these processes and tools (highly based on CATIA V4 technology and home-grown data management capabilities) have served recent new airplane programs well, Boeing is looking to the information technology industry to supply the next generation of design collaboration processes and tools.

History
Pre-777 (up to 1990):
Prior to the 777 airplane, there was very little digital design, and therefore very little collaboration with other companies, at least to any large degree. Companies involved with the design had to actually locate people in Boeing facilities to work alongside Boeing engineers. Companies providing end-item "black boxes" were sent specification documents and interface control definition in book form and Mylar drawings. Much travel was required to integrate and finalize the design. E-mail was just arriving as a viable communication tool, but limited to simple text messages.

777 (1990-1995):
After piloting use of CATIA for design and integration for a few years, and with a 777 program design initiative of 50 percent less error/change/rework, Boeing concluded that implementation of a 100 percent CATIA-designed airplane was crucial to achieving its goals. Additionally, Boeing partnered with several key suppliers to design and build major assemblies of the airplane. Companies included Mitsubishi, Kawasaki, Fuji, Rolls Royce, GE Aircraft Engines, Pratt & Whitney, and other companies around the world. Boeing design sites are also dispersed: two major sites in the Puget Sound region of Washington state, Wichita, Kansas, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and others. All these sites had to be working together, using CATIA to design and integrate the product. To accomplish this, Boeing looked to industry for design data management and collaboration solutions, but none existed that was robust enough to handle the size of the CATIA models or the volume of transactions saving and retrieving geometry for design context.

Leading the way to large-scale design data management and collaboration, Boeing employed many computing architects, programmers, and analysts to develop software and processes to enable digital pre-assembly and design release involving all the design sites shown below.

Capabilities included nightly updates of surrounding geometry to each site involved in the digital pre-assembly process, data transfer for released CATIA models (Puget Sound was the release center; other sites had certified copies of the data), and upload of parts-list information from remote sites. All capabilities were asynchronous and relied on network communication lines specially installed for Boeing's use on the 777 program.

Interesting Trivia
The 777 program had dedicated strands of two undersea cables. The first was part of an existing cable routed through Hawaii to Japan. The second (intended as a back-up) was part of a new cable then being laid across the northern Pacific to Japan. This proved to be good insurance. A couple of weeks after the second cable was operational, a fishing trawler snagged a junction box on the cable off of Hawaii and put it out of service for a week or so. Shortly after it was restored, an underwater volcanic eruption knocked out the northern cable (for about 3-4 weeks). With good planning and redundancy in the system, there was no impact to program schedules.

One of the most impressive features of Boeing Commercial Airplanes' Digital Pre-Assembly (DPA) process is the ability to manage and retain every airplane configuration of every customer. The complexity of a commercial airplane, along with the variability between customer configurations, requires ongoing maintenance of the digital mockup throughout the lifetime of the airplane. Examples of processes that use the mockup after initial design are 1) the design of retrofit kits for in-service airplanes, and 2) the use of previous configurations for "similar to" design. During the 777 design collaboration, this process was extended to all major design sites, including Japan. All designers had appropriate context for what they needed to design, for each airplane.

The 777 design collaboration was an incredible success. In addition to the cost of developing the software, networks, and overall data exchange infrastructure, there was cost in requiring all design suppliers to use CATIA as their CAD tool. Companies that had experience with other CAD tools had to purchase a new tool, create their own support infrastructure, retrain their workforce, and maintain their portion of the Boeing design environment.

Current Collaboration Processes
With advances in network performance, the Internet, and distributed computing, new capabilities are in place to enable remote design integration. Most, however, require either the extension of the Boeing network/firewall into/around design sites (and require the design site to use Boeing CAD processes and tools), or require cumbersome data transfer methods, and Boeing designers to "catch and integrate" the design from design suppliers. These methods will not support the volume of activity required for the design of a new airplane.

Next Generation of Design Collaboration
The company is moving from a process where Boeing collects design from all suppliers and re-enters into its systems, to a shared design environment, where true design collaboration occurs. Design suppliers and partners will use the same set of design data (based on authorized access), in a persistent, context-rich environment that includes requirements, functional design, analysis, spatial design, supportability design, and a level of the manufacturing plan.

As an example of the global design challenge, Boeing has already publicly announced technology development partners for the Sonic Cruiser concept airplane. Companies include Alenia Aeronautica, Japan Aircraft Industries (JAI: which includes Mitsubishi, Fuji, and Kawasaki Heavy Industries), Vought Aircraft Industries, Hawker de Havilland (Boeing subsidiary), Fischer Advanced Composite Components, Stork Fokker Aerostructures, GKN Aerospace Services, and others.

Next generation global design collaboration tools must enable creation and integration of airplane requirements, functional design, spatial design, supportability, and manufacturing processes. Boeing wants to enable participating companies to use their own best practices and leverage their core competencies in the area of CAD/CAM and PDM/MRM system requirements for analysis, design, and manufacturing. The design collaboration solution must have open-architecture to allow integration of design artifacts created in a variety of sources (multi-CAx, multi-PDM).

To learn more attend 2002 Fall COE, Semi-General Session G-8: Design Integration Across a Global Enterprise.

©2002 Boeing