New water-treatment processes have produced dramatic savings at a growing number of Boeing sites as part of a Shared Services Group initiative. At one site in Kent, Wash., with nine cooling towers of chilled water, the initiative is expected to save 7.6 million gallons (28.9 million liters) a year.
The creation of a direct-delivery freight process using Lean+ has significantly improved the flow of parts and material to Boeing’s jet-making factories in the Puget Sound region of Washington state. What once took anywhere from one of three days is now taking only a few hours at most.