Quality Goals and Achievements for Boeing 747 Automated Riveting

This paper describes a manufacturing process quality improvement program initiated at Northrop’s Alameda production facility in order to improve automatic riveting quality. It involved the installation of BACR15CE rivets in the skin panels of Boeing 747 aircraft. The steps taken as part of this program were:

1. 1.
   The key characteristics were established.
2. 2.
   The initial statistical variation in key characteristics was determined.
3. 3.
   Metrics were established for the key characteristics.
4. 4.
   The variation was quantified and the causes of variation established.
5. 5.
   Variation reduction activities were implemented.
6. 6.
   Progress was tracked.
7. 7.
   Ground rules were established to capture the improvement.

The above process is described and the results are delineated.