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Aviation History
1989
1989 - 1184.PDF
Douglas puts trust in teamwork by Norman Lynn in Los Angeles McDonnell Douglas is re fashioning Douglas Aircraft in the Japanese image. New Douglas president Robert Hood, who succeeds James Worsham on May 1, is using a Toyota-General Motors auto mobile assembly venture in California as model for reshaping his company. Hood aims to cure pro duction and management troubles at Douglas, which have delayed delivery of 20 to 30 aircraft to ten airlines by up to 30 days. Hood's actions are reportedly provoking wide spread resignations among Douglas' 41,000 employees at Long Beach and Torrance. Hood is moving to change union contract work rules to produce aircraft faster, by using techniques used by New United Motor Manufacturing (NUMMI). For trie past five years, Toyota has built automobiles at this northern California plant using its "team" approach on the assembly line. The factory is operated as a joint venture with General Motors . Borrowing from the NUMMI approach, Hood is forming hundreds of employee teams with three to seven members each. Team members specialise in production, quality, engin eering, or safety. A key element is Jikoda—a Japanese concept that stops parts from further processing if defective. Under Jikoda, any worker can stop production if he sees a problem or a defective part. NUMMI's "just-in-time" inventory allows no more parts to be delivered to the pro duction line than immediately needed for assembly, thereby cutting warehouse inventory costs and handling time. Hood has named manage ment consultant Joel Smith vice-president quality to incor porate the NUMMI approach over the next 12 months. Smith has installed the team concept at other US factories and helped negotiate the first union con tract at the NUMMI plant. The key problem in intro ducing Japanese techniques at US plants has been the opposition of the American factory worker to new working methods. Hood's actions have already brought opposition and criticism from labour unions which claim he is causing damage to morale by moving too fast. "They are doing it with a Douglas employees learn Japanese-style team tactics meat-axe approach and throw ing us into a destabilising period," complains Douglas Griffith, president of Local 148 of the United Auto Workers labour union, bargaining agent for 10,000 Douglas employees. Hood counters: "Any time you go through change you introduce instability and fear". He points out that Douglas is using antiquated" manufactur ing and purchasing systems instituted long before McDon nell Aircraft acquired Douglas in 1967. GPA Group snaps up Douglas chief Retiring Douglas Aircraft presi dent James Worsham is joining GPA Group, which last week placed the largest airliner order in civil aviation history. Worsham, described by the Irish leasing company as a "supersalesman", will become chairman of GPA Pacific and Asia on June 1. He is leaving McDonnell Douglas, having reached its mandatory retire ment age of 65, and will be joined at GPA by former Mc Donnell Douglas vice-president commercial marketing inter national Glenn Hickerson. "Asia and the Pacific Rim are becoming increasingly important territory for GPA," says chairman and chief execu tive Dr Tony Ryan. Some of the 308 Airbus, Boeing, and McDonnell Douglas airliners included in last week's $17 billion order announcement will be leased by GPA to airlines in this region. By placing orders for 92 Boeing 737s, 40 767s, and 50 757s, GPA gave Boeing the largest share of the deal, worth around 9 • 4 billion. Airbus, with its orders from GPA for 30 A320s and 24 A330/A340s, will receive about $4-3 billion. McDonnell Douglas stands to make around $3-1 billion with orders for 64 MD-80 twinjets and eight MD-11 trijets. The 757s will be powered by Rolls-Royce RB.211-535E4s— worth $500 million—the 767s by Pratt & Whitney PW4000s, and the MD-lls by General Electric CF6-80C2s. Power- plants for the A3 30s and A340s have not yet been selected. Engines for the A320s will be CFM56s, bought through GPA's joint venture with engine manufacturer CFM International, and International Aero Engines' V2500. GPA's Maurice Foley, left, welcomes Douglas's James Worsham on board GPA's 50 new 757s will fall under the control of the newly established joint-venture be tween the leasing company and Rolls-Royce, each company holding 50 per cent. While GPA Rolls will handle the 757s, GPA Airbus will take control of the newly acquired A320s (Airbus Industrie has a 17 • 5 per cent interest) and Irish Aero space will take the new MD-80s and MD-lls into its portfolio. GPA says that, of the 308 aircraft ordered in the deal, 123 are firm, with the remaining 185 to be reconfirmed about two years before delivery. Company chairman Tony Ryan says that the orders essen tially complete GPA's current round of investment in new aircraft. "This significant commitment means that we expect to purchase 10 per cent of the commercial jet aircraft delivered through the mid- 1990s," Ryan says. 26 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL, 29 April 1989
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