The annual SAE AeroTech Conference (sponsored by Boeing) was held in Seattle, Washington last week. This is an annual event where all of the major aerospace companies get together to review the latest technology as well as to update industry standards. There were three days of technical sessions covering topics ranging from the new standards for safety management systems to new design & manufacturing methods.
I attended a presentation from a Boeing engineer talking about lean/cellular manufacturing. While his presentation was informative, I was a little taken aback because these lean principles are techniques that many companies implemented over 10 years ago (perhaps someone should have been talking about 787 supply chain management).