Industrial Management

MAY-JUN 2015

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6 Industrial Management It seems to be the case that the more important the project, the more managerial control we wish to exercise over it. We are especially protective during the early stages, when our brain- child seems so vulnerable to mishaps and is apt to trip and stumble out of the starting gate. This is why so many high- profile projects begin their journeys under wraps and away from prying eyes until management has the confidence to reveal the tried and true product in all its glory. One might think Boeing would be tempted to protect high-profile projects, such as a new commercial jetliner, with similar discretion – building it behind closed hangar doors, testing it in secret until the day comes to unveil the shiny new passenger plane to the world. Yet Boeing, in its wisdom, opens the doors to the prying eyes of the news media virtually from day one. I interviewed the project management team that designed and delivered the 777 to its first customer, United Airlines, and I was impressed by the project's transparency. The Boeing team invited a senior executive from United Airlines to the plant where the 777 was being assembled. He had complete access to all departments, was welcomed into Boeing's top secret war room and was privy to all the brain- storming and problem-solving sessions that can occur on such a complex project over a long development period. But that wasn't all. Boeing invited the news media to attend critical – one might say confidential – testing proce- dures. In the static test, for example, the long wings of the 777 were incremen- tally pressed upward and downward until they literally snapped off the fuselage. And the reporters saw this. Surely, many companies would want to restrict a stress-to-failure test on an airliner to the eyes of engineers. But the flying public was gratified to learn that the wings snapped at precisely the predicted breaking point of 12 feet in either direction, which means a 777 can "flap" its wings up to 24 feet, rendering even the most severe turbulence irrel- evant. Consistent with its philosophy of transparency, Boeing invited the media to witness the first flight of the newly assembled 777, a procedure with suffi- cient risk to require that the test pilots wear parachutes and that the escape hatch be affixed with explosive bolts. Consider what would have happened if fire had broken out on the flight deck, if hydraulic failure had prevented a wheel from descending or if any number of less dramatic issues had happened. The public would have known that evening as news programs replayed images of the troubled flight over and over again. Sure, these problems would have been identified and corrected during the months of extensive testing and shakedown cruises, but the 777 might never have recovered from the bad press. The flying public would have approached the airplane with trepidation or opted to buy from Europe's Airbus group. More recently, Boeing offered even more media access to the first flight of its new 787 Dreamliner by broad- casting the event on the Internet. In its announcement, Boeing cautioned the viewer that the date of the flight was "dependent upon final internal reviews, taxi test and receiving the final experi- mental ticket from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration." Surely, many companies would shudder at the thought of exposing an experimental product launch to the eyes of the world. But this is one of the reasons there is so much public trust in any Boeing airplane. The public senses that Boeing, which has so much to lose if things go awry, has utter confidence in its products – and that confidence becomes contagious. Dan Carrison, a business writer and consultant, has authored or co-authored four management books: Semper Fi: Business Leadership the Marine Corps Way, Deadline! How Premier Organizations Win the Race against Time, Business Under Fire and From the Bureau to the Boardroom . Carrison is a general partner of Semper Fi Consulting and founder of www.ghostwritersinthesky.com. He also teaches corporate communication for the University of La Verne. He can be reached at dan.carrison@gmail.com. 21st century management Many high- profile projects begin their journeys under wraps. Boeing's project transparency creates public trust BY DAN CARRISON

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