The encyclopedia · Strategy & Leadership · Strategic decision · 1990
Boeing put airline mechanics inside the 777 design teams
Boeing put airline mechanics in 777 design teams, fixing 300 issues before parts were built.
Boeing Commercial Airplanes
the move
Manufacturers had long designed jetliners largely on their own, then handed the finished airplane to airlines whose pilots and maintenance crews discovered its real-world flaws only after it entered service — parts buried too deep for a scheduled turnaround, controls laid out for an engineer's logic rather than a pilot's. By the time an airline's mechanics could report that a part was miserable to reach on the ramp, changing the design meant a next-generation airplane, not this one.
United Airlines' $22 billion order effectively launched the 777 program, but Boeing needed more than one customer's sign-off on a paper spec — it needed the airplane airlines actually had to fly and fix for thirty years. In January 1990, Boeing and eight launch airlines — All Nippon, American, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Delta, Japan Airlines, Qantas and United — met for the first session of what Boeing called "Working Together."
why it works
- Mechanics could spot reach and access problems in digital mock-ups while changes were still cheap CAD edits.
- Full-time airline representatives had authority to force changes, so feedback wasn't filtered or ignored.
- Reviewing 1,500 design features with airlines caught 300 issues before production, avoiding costly retrofits.
- Working together built trust and alignment, making the final airplane match what airlines actually needed.
what transfers
Put the people who will operate or maintain your product inside the design team while decisions are still reversible, so their feedback can shape the current version, not just the next one.
what came after
1,500 design features were reviewed with the airlines and 300 changed pre-production; the 777 entered United service in June 1995. The 777's design-build team structure and airline co-location became a reference model cited in aerospace program management and concurrent-engineering case studies, though Boeing itself did not carry the full "Working Together" model forward unchanged onto later programs.
references
- Boeing's 777 Takes to the Skies
- 6/12/1994: The First Flight of the Boeing 777
- Agile at Boeing in 1990s – the 777 Program
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