Behind the Alaska Blowout: a Manufacturing Habit Boeing Can’t Break


阿拉斯加航空一架波音737飞机在飞行途中一块机体脱落，后来检查发现这架飞机出厂时螺栓已有问题。波音生产线上的混乱意味着工作没有按顺序完成，制造了出错的机会。


在对波音公司的安全文化进行审查时，发现所谓的 “非正常流程的工作”--即在生产线正常顺序之外完成的工作是一个问题。

不久前，一架波音(Boeing) 737飞机在飞行途中一块机体脱落，在机身侧面留下了一个舱门大小的洞。而就在这一事故发生数月前，这架飞机刚刚在装配线上慢悠悠地经过了将近三周的作业，因为机身铆钉有问题，需要修理。 6park.com
Months before a piece of a Boeing 737 blew out midflight, leaving a door-sized hole in its side, the plane spent nearly three weeks shuffling down an assembly line with faulty rivets in need of repair. 6park.com
    
联邦调查人员已表示，在该飞机机身运抵该工厂后，工人们几乎在第一时间就发现了有问题零件。但工人们没有立即修理，该737飞机也继续传向下一个工作站。19天后，当工作人员完成维修时，他们没有更换维修期间拆开的舱门上的四个关键螺栓，从而导致了1月5日美国阿拉斯加航空(Alaska Airlines)航班的事故。 6park.com
Workers had spotted the bad parts almost immediately after the plane’s fuselage arrived at the factory, federal investigators have said. But they didn’t make the fix right away and the 737 continued on to the next workstation. When crews completed the repair 19 days later, they failed to replace four critical bolts on a plug door they had opened to do the job, leading to the Jan. 5 accident on an Alaska Airlines flight.  6park.com
    
在波音公司，有一个术语来形容类似这种不按生产线正常流程完成的工作：非正常流程的工作(traveled work)。 6park.com
At Boeing, there is a term for situations such as this one, when work is completed out of the production line’s ordinary sequence: traveled work. 6park.com
   
“这个生产线上的员工知道是什么情况，”波音公司首席执行官卡尔霍恩(Dave Calhoun)在上周三对员工的讲话中说。“这是不恰当的。它制造了出错的机会。” 6park.com
“The folks on the line, they know what it is,” Boeing Chief Executive Dave Calhoun said in a Wednesday address to employees. “It’s uncomfortable. It creates opportunities for failure.” 6park.com
   
卡尔霍恩说，在这个时刻，鉴于阿拉斯加航空发生的事情，波音必须在这一问题上做出改变。 6park.com
“And at this moment in time, in light of what happened with Alaska,” Calhoun said, “we’ve got to make a step change on this one.”


波音公司首席执行官卡尔霍恩今年早些时候在华盛顿特区就近期的安全问题会见了立法者。

波音和负责调查阿拉斯加航空事故的联邦调查人员已表示，涉及飞机质量时，不按正常流程完成工作的做法是一种负担。波音领导层在向工厂工人了解安全方面的不足时曾表示，非正常流程的工作是员工最关心的问题之一。该公司已表示，认为拆开该舱门所需的文件从未创建。 6park.com
Boeing and federal investigators probing the Alaska Air incident have said the practice of completing work out of sequence is a liability when it comes to airplane quality. Boeing leaders, as they canvass factory workers for insight on where safety is falling short, have said traveled work tops employees’ lists of concerns. The company has said it believes documentation required in the opening of the plug door was never created.   6park.com
    
波音上周对员工表示，该公司正在改变数以万计非工会员工的薪酬决定方式；这些员工既有南卡罗来纳州机械师，也有公司高管。现在，减少非正常流程的工作等质量措施将决定波音商用飞机员工年度奖金的60%。 6park.com
Last week, Boeing told staff it was changing how it determines pay for tens of thousands of nonunion employees—from mechanics in South Carolina to its top brass. Quality measures, such as reducing traveled work, will now determine 60% of the annual bonuses for those working on its commercial aircraft.  6park.com
   
多年来，波音高管一直试图改掉这种习惯做法，但都以失败告终。四年前，在发生了两起致命的MAX坠机事故后，波音提出了提高安全性的五大核心价值。其中第三条是：杜绝非正常流程的工作。 6park.com
For years, Boeing executives have tried and failed to break the habit. Four years ago, in the aftermath of a pair of fatal MAX crashes, Boeing laid out five values central to improving safety. Number three on the list: eliminate traveled work. 6park.com
    
这是因为，不按顺序装配会使本已错综复杂、往往费时费力的飞机组装过程更加复杂。在波音公司位于华盛顿州伦顿的737飞机制造厂，每架飞机都要经过一系列站位，由工作人员负责完成特定任务。这些站位配备了工具、平台和经过培训的工作人员，以完成指定的工作。飞机大约每24小时会移至下一个站位。 6park.com
That is because doing work out of order further complicates the already intricate, often-taxing process of putting together an airplane. In Boeing’s Renton, Wash., factory where 737s are built, each plane moves its way through a series of stations, where crews are tasked with completing certain tasks. Those stations are equipped with tooling, platforms and crews trained to do the jobs designated for the site. Planes advance to the next station roughly every 24 hours. 6park.com
   
有时，因为缺少一个部件，工人们无法完成指定的工作。如果让飞机待在原来的站位上，会拖慢整个装配线的速度。因此，飞机会继续接下来的装配流程，然后在后面的装配线上把缺少的那个部件安装好或完成维修。 6park.com
Sometimes, a missing part prevents workers from finishing the designated job. Leaving the plane sitting in place would slow the entire production line. So it moves ahead and the part gets added or repair is completed somewhere down the line.


NTSB调查人员检查落在俄勒冈州波特兰市一处的波音737-9 MAX飞机出问题的门栓。

在某些情况下，装配工作直到飞机离开工厂移至所谓的“飞行线”时才完成。飞行线是工厂外停放飞机等待交付的地方。 6park.com
In some cases, the work isn’t done until the plane leaves the factory for what is known as the flight line, a spot outside the factory where planes are parked as they await delivery.  6park.com
   
在指定站位之外进行装配可能会出现问题。比如，手头可能没有合适的工具，工人们只能往返多趟以获得必要的设备。此外，非指定站位也可能不适宜特定的装配工作。 6park.com
Doing a job away from the intended workstation can be problematic. The proper tooling may not be on hand, leaving workers moving back and forth to get the necessary equipment. And the station may not be set up for the job. 6park.com
   
代表华盛顿州32,000名波音工人的美国国际机械师及航空航天工人协会(IAM)分会主席Jon Holden说：“你在后面的装配线进行作业，在一个不同的站位，它的设计不符合你这项工作的人体工程学。”他说：“比如，到了飞行线，你需要站在梯子上或在曲面上进行安装。” 6park.com
“You’re performing work later in the process, in a different location that wasn’t engineered ergonomically for the work,” said Jon Holden, president of an IAM chapter representing 32,000 Boeing workers in Washington state. “Now I’m out on the flight line and I’m on a ladder or on a contoured surface. 6park.com
   
Holden说：“你可不希望发生这样的事，但你必须把飞机从那个站位移开，因为另一架飞机马上就要来了。” 6park.com
“It’s something you want to avoid, but you gotta move that airplane out of that position because another one is coming,” Holden said. 6park.com
   
工人们说，如果需要出差去进行装配，他们的工作会更加困难，也会增加出错的可能性，但淘汰这种做法很难，因为它有助于保持飞机一架接一架地下线。即使某项装配工作因为缺少部件而无法完成，装配线仍能保持运转，这有助于避免代价高昂的生产放缓。 6park.com
Workers say traveled work makes their jobs harder and increases the likelihood for mistakes, but phasing out the practice is tough because it helps keep planes rolling off the line. Keeping production lines moving even when certain parts aren’t available for a given job helps avoid costly slowdowns.  6park.com
    
过去这一年，波音面临的飞机供应压力尤其大。 6park.com
Pressure on Boeing to keep the planes coming has been especially high in the past year.  6park.com
   
在经历了疫情导致的多年出行低迷之后，航空公司争相满足后新冠时期不断增长的需求。 6park.com
Airlines, following years of depressed travel amid the pandemic, scrambled to meet growing post-Covid demand.  6park.com
    
一旦人们重新开始乘坐飞机，波音就面临着供应链迟迟无法重新启动的问题；在疫情期间，以及在波音最畅销的MAX喷气式飞机因坠机事故被停飞的近两年期间，供应链曾经关闭。雪上加霜的是，去年秋天，主要供应商Spirit AeroSystems发生了一系列质量问题，导致737的生产进度缓慢。 6park.com
Once people started flying again, Boeing faced a supply chain that was slow to restart following shutdowns during both the pandemic and the nearly two-year grounding of Boeing’s bestselling MAX jets because of the crashes. Compounding the problem: a series of quality mishaps at Spirit AeroSystems, a major supplier, that slowed 737 production to a crawl last fall. 


现在质量标准将决定波音商用飞机员工60%的年度奖金。

波音还在商谈接管Spirit；Spirit的质量问题曾导致飞机机身在运抵波音的工厂时存在缺陷。上个月，波音开始拒绝接收Spirit任何未按规格完成的部件。商务主管Stan Deal在给员工的一份内部通知中说，这样做将减缓737的生产速度，让工人们有机会在未完成的工作方面赶上进度。 6park.com
The company also is in talks to take over Spirit, whose quality problems have resulted in fuselages arriving at Boeing’s factory with defects. Last month, Boeing began refusing to take shipments of any Spirit part not completed to specification. Doing so will slow 737 production, which will give workers a chance to catch up on unfinished jobs, commercial chief Stan Deal said in a memo to employees.  6park.com
    
在代表美国航空管理局(Federal Aviation Administration, 简称FAA)对波音的安全文化进行评估期间，“非正常流程的工作”成为一个问题。 6park.com
Traveled work emerged as a problem during a review of Boeing’s safety culture on behalf of the Federal Aviation Administration.  6park.com
    
进行此项评估的独立小组成员Javier de Luis说，员工们被告知安全是重中之重，“但他们却看到飞机被推了出去，而工作还没有完成”。他在麻省理工学院(MIT)教授航空航天工程，他的姐姐Graziella de Luis在埃塞俄比亚发生的第二起MAX坠机事件中丧生。 6park.com
Employees are told that safety is the top priority “but then they see airplanes being pushed out with work not being finished,” said Javier de Luis, who was part of an independent panel that conducted the review. He teaches aerospace engineering at MIT and his sister, Graziella de Luis, died in the second MAX crash in Ethiopia.