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A Look Inside Airbus’s Alabama Assembly Line
- 6d6b73 9y agohttps://static01.nyt.com/images/2017/05/07/magazine/07airbus-slide-QGOR/07airbus-slide-QGOR-superJumbo.jpg https://static01.nyt.com/images/2017/05/07/magazine/07airbus... "Beware of propeller" seems like a strange name for a ship :)
- arethuza 9y agoIt would make a splendid Culture ship name!
- wohlergehen 9y agoThe real name is actually painted at the top. It's BBC Volga [1]. Currently in the Bahamas. 1: https://www.vesselfinder.com/de/vessels/BBC-VOLGA-IMO-9436329-MMSI-304043000 https://www.vesselfinder.com/de/vessels/BBC-VOLGA-IMO-943632...
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- strictnein 9y agoThe BBC is really branching out.
- owenversteeg 9y agoGod, that is a fantastic photo though. For the vision- or bandwidth- impaired, it's a plane fuselage being loaded into a large boat.
- danmaz74 9y ago> Almost a third of American factory workers now hold four-year college degrees, a trend that reflects the increasingly cerebral nature of the work. Wow.
- sandworm101 9y agoIm waiting for "one third of factory jobs require a four-year degree" before getting to excites about cerebral natures. There are a great number of people with degrees out there. I want to see that the jobs require the education to do the work, not that market forces mean that unnecessary degrees make an applicant more competative.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- jessriedel 9y agoHow would you tell the difference?
- sandworm101 9y agoThe job postings say "must have undergraduate in X".
- jessriedel 9y agoOh OK, but this doesn't really distinguish between "market forces mean that unnecessary degrees make an applicant more competative" and "the job actually requires the knowledge/skills learned in college" (my words). Lots of businesses will just say "requires a college degree" on the job ad as a filtering mechanism.
- sandworm101 9y agoA factory won't just casually add a degree requirement. That has implications. In a union environment this may require a higher pay scale. If they increase the minimum standards for a current job they may have to retrain people. There may also be a trickle effect on managers who may too now need degrees. So whereas a startup may just start requiring degrees to weed out candidates, a large employer like a factory (or government) won't do so unless necessary. I'm just starting that rare job that insists on a "four year degree plus other post-graduate education" but isn't specific as to which degrees they want. That really cuts down on candidates. Of the dozen interviews, I will instantly be higher up in the organization than ten of the people who interviewed me. They didn't take the education requirements lightly.
- hawski 9y agoLooking at those pictures I wonder how assembly, from unloading cargo to final testing, could be fully automated. I came to think that until we automate automation it will be quite hard. Humans with assist of tools are flexible enough - especially on this scale.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- Gravityloss 9y agoThe structure could be different. For example with latest composites you can assemble the dry fibers, maybe with some stitching to keep them in place, wrap them in a bag and use vacuum to infuse them with resin. No fasteners and large monolithic parts. Sometimes you need an autoclaves, sometimes not. Things like point loads would need to be designed out as much as possible. Likely because of large existing investments, politics and path dependence, the new airliners built differently will have come from somewhere else. Airbus itself did disrupt the market with composites back in the day with their first plane, and they have a multi megawatt class electric ones in the works, so who knows, maybe they can renew?
- coredog64 9y agoLarge monolithic parts are harder to repair. That's the upside to the current setup of panels riveted to a frame. Any one of those panels can be drilled out and replaced. Boeing has a special team called "AOG" (aircraft on ground) that will go out to a repairable aircraft that isn't airworthy and make it so. Kind of hard to do that when you need to bring along a megaton autoclave and portable cleanroom.
- mtw 9y agoyou will have to re-think the whole assembly process. And it's a bit far-fetched to think of an automated process for a A321. I would try to design a small plane - such as the next-gen Cessna - that could be built mostly by robots. Maybe hire most of the engineers from the carkmaker industry (Mercedes-Benz, Tesla). Then move up from there.
- Gravityloss 9y agoFascinating to see something made not in China, and even the components don't come from there. (I realize they also do assembly and produce some components in China too.)
- yzmtf2008 9y agoWhy the hostility?
- Gravityloss 9y agoI didn't intend to sound hostile?
- JustSomeNobody 9y agoWhy the jump to conclusions? A lot of people have the idea that most manufacturing occurs in China.
- CPLX 9y agoYou may be interested to learn that about 77% of the world's manufacturing happens somewhere that's not China.
- keehun 9y agoIt's surprising to me how small the cargo-hold is. I've always imagined it to be a lot bigger, but now that I think about it (having seen it), it makes a lot of sense..
- jamiek88 9y agoYes, I went through the same process, obviously in hindsight it is a tube, all that can remain is the bottom half of the circle underneath the floor. Fascinating look at those part assembled planes. Interesting how a politics is just as 'real' as economics - the plane is purposefully built around the EU to spread the jobs and buy in from member nations, why not include the US in that too? With the UK leaving the EU I can see those parts being moved to the US and more being done here. Pity it's because 'cheap labour' though -having said that the cost of living in Mobile, AL is a lot lower than the European sites I'll wager.
- Symbiote 9y ago> With the UK leaving the EU I can see those parts being moved to the US Unless Airbus finds it useful to keep factories in the UK, to sell to British airlines and the British military. Or, because there's so much other aerospace in the UK -- Wikipedia has a huge list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerospace_industry_in_the_United_Kingdom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerospace_industry_in_the_Unit... Broughton in Wales is not an expensive area. It's not too far from Liverpool.
- keehun 9y ago>> Yes, I went through the same process, obviously in hindsight it is a tube, all that can remain is the bottom half of the circle underneath the floor. But see that's the part that got me. I subconsciously thought (without logic) that the passenger cabin part is the upper half and the cargo is just as big as the top half. Actually, the passenger side is much more than the half, and it looks like they've crammed in a lot of things in the remaining bottom portion, making the cargo hold even smaller.
- coredog64 9y ago
- sethbannon 9y agoThe vivid color contrasts in these photos make them visually stunning, but do they serve any functional purpose?
- Swizec 9y agoIt makes them visually stunning. That is the purpose. High contrast also makes tiny colorful details easier to see.
- Luc 9y agoI think there's something else going on in these pictures. Some of them appear in focus over the whole image (large depth of field), which makes them look a bit synthetic. I wonder if they're composite images, or just using some great lenses.
- owenversteeg 9y agoThe photos are absolutely gorgeous, and it looks like whoever's taking them has some seriously expensive glass. I'm guessing that someone in charge wanted the photos to "pop" and the contrast got boosted just slightly too much. In my opinion it doesn't ruin the photos, and it's only really visible in a handful of them.
- nrki 9y agoProbably a combo of that and circular polarizers. edit: for the outside shots.
- L_Rahman 9y agoThe photographer is Christopher Payne who does a lot of work that looks at humans making things. The colors and how they're treated in these photos is a product of his specific aesthetic: http://lenscratch.com/2016/08/christopher-payne-making-steinway/ http://lenscratch.com/2016/08/christopher-payne-making-stein...
- bigtones 9y agoI'm disappointed American Airlines don't buy all Boeing planes, especially given their name. Although Airbus planes do have some American parts on them, they're mostly European. Considering they got USD$15 Billion in bailout money from the US Government, and just how good Boeing planes are at a very similar price point, supporting manufacturing in their country of origin seems like the right thing to do.
- nbevans 9y agoAA are just going to buy whatever deal is the best on offer in order to help their market competitiveness i.e. ticket prices.
- byroot 9y agoThat, and I also heard from an Airbus engineer friend, that airlines try to diversify their planes so that in case a specific plane model is grounded by the FAA (or equivalent) the impact is less severe.
- valuearb 9y agoThat's impossible. Edit: As CoreDog said, it would be a cost nightmare. Already airlines would suffer massively if any type is grounded. Ground 737s or A321s? It would be like 9-11 all over again, shut down most every flight of almost every airline. Even grounding a specific version of a type, like 737-700 would be difficult to handle for the airlines that fly them. Alaska would have to cancel nearly 10% of their flights. And it's hard to imagine how the FAA could ground the 737-700 and not the 737-800 at the same time given they are almost identical, which would ground 2/3s of Alaska's fleet. Airlines can consolidate their fleets around a few specific models because it's super cost effective, and the chances of grounding any single model are virtually nil. 737s and A3xx have flown many billions of miles safely since their last incident, it's almost impossible to imagine a problems so urgent and dangerous it would require grounding an entire fleet of planes that flies safely every single day.
- 9y ago
- chiph 9y agoSo Mobile is to Airbus as Charleston is to Boeing.
- prplhaz4 9y agoThese are some massive sub-assemblies being carted all over the world...it's surprising to me that there aren't more localized efficiencies, or that this global Lego set doesn't always have more missing pieces than its worth. Rear Fuselage: Hamburg, Germany Vertical Stabilizer: Stade, Germany Forward Fuselage: Saint-Nazaire, France Wings: Broughton, Wales Engines: Middletown, Connecticuit Final Assembly: Mobile, Alabama
- omegant 9y agoIt's like this due to political reasons, nothing to do with eficiency.
- jrf6 9y agoThe article also cited the lower wages in Alabama. The pay scale tops out at $23 an hour, and the workforce is not unionized.
- jonknee 9y agoThe $158m in incentives that Alabama paid were also part of it: http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2015/09/big_incentives_at_stake_as_air.html http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2015/09/big_incentives_at_s...
- howard941 9y agoAs was the hope Airbus would land the Air Force tanker contract it lost to Boeing.
- sgift 9y agoSurprisingly, there was a report a few years ago that the distributed nature of Airbus also was more efficient. But yeah, it's mainly for political reasons.
- valuearb 9y ago
- iplaw 9y agoOne of my uncles has worked for Bell, Boeing, and Lockheed for the last 30 years. The mechanical complexity of aircraft, and the ability for a blue collar worker to master a niche aerospace trade, never ceases to amaze me.
- JustSomeNobody 9y agoWhat amazes me is that 50 years ago a plane like the SR-71 was designed on paper and turned out amazing. Fast forward to today and you have the over-engineered piece of expensive garbage that is the F-35.
- MagnumOpus 9y ago> SR-71 was designed on paper and turned out amazing Well, "amazing" is relative - it was a hastily constructed leaking bucket of kerosene, and within the first five years of its first sorties, one third of the planes have crashed and burned. Not even Lockheed's other famous death trap - the F-104 Lawn Dart - was as dangerous as the SR-71. (And of course the F-35 is supposed to be doing every single job under the sun rather than having a single purpose - hence it being outperformed by its Chinese single-purpose carbon copies already.)
- erentz 9y agoThis was the most striking part to me: "According to The Seattle Times, the starting rate at the Airbus plant, about $16.50 per hour, is comparable to the starting wages at Boeing’s passenger-plane plant in Renton, Wash. But the Airbus pay scale tops out at $23 an hour, while experienced Boeing workers can earn $45." We now have so much surplus labor that even this relatively skilled job only pays $16.50 an hour.
- JBReefer 9y agoYou're overestimating both the level of skill required to start and the cost of living in Alabama. Alabama is CHEAP, and taxes are very low.
- needz 9y ago8th lowest CoL in the USA and a pretty great place to live. Glad to call Birmingham my home.
- jlappi 9y agoJasper here, even cheaper. A neat little town not too far from the Ham.
- needz 9y agoCurrently two miles from work with dirt-cheap rent while I build up my nest egg. Late twenties, single and enjoying the convenient nightlife. I'll gladly move when it's time to though (better school systems and all those family-life-community benefits).
- Jtsummers 9y agoUnions. Alabama doesn't have effective unions. You'll see similar differences in top-end pay in other Right to Work states compared to states like Washington with more effective unions and greater ability of employees to participate in collective bargaining.
- josefresco 9y ago"American workers expect things to go wrong and then they fix it" I found this this interesting, also that it was said by a 25 year old manager.
- sargun 9y agoI think the latter part of this quote is disappointing: American workers expect things to go wrong and then they fix it,” said Freddie Guinness, 25, who moved to Mobile from Ireland to manage the new facility. “We want it to go right the first time.” How much does cautiousness result in increased productivity versus having the ability to have reactive responses to things going wrong? I've found this behaviour in other orgs, and often it was used an excuse not to train people to have the capability to remediate, but only to do what they're trained to do. Also, as far as the age goes -- that's not that unusual for a line manager in manufacturing. Assuming they started working at ~22, 3 years in one plant can definitely make you a line manager.
- barrkel 9y agoIf you've got a process where each stage has as its input a previous stage, improving the whole process depends not on fixing the inputs, but fixing the output of the previous stage. Getting into a habit of local fixes and workarounds may lead to a more resilient process, but it's also a less globally efficient one; fixes accumulate and the knowledge of brokenness stays local. There are direct analogues with software engineering, particularly in maintenance of large or legacy systems - local fixes is how global architecture degrades.
- microDude 9y agoA lot of this article talks about the US government subsidies and back rubbing required to sell to the US market. What about the reverse case? What is required to sell Boeing planes in Europe? Last time I checked there are a lot of protectionism clauses surrounding EU aerospace markets.
- munificent 9y ago"It helps that in Alabama, labor is cheap. Airbus set a goal that building planes in the United States would not cost a penny more than building in Europe. It is expensive to ship parts from Hamburg, but because the Mobile workers are not unionized, Airbus can hire fewer of them and pay them lower wages." I think that's the money quote of the article. Large multinational corporations have a long history of moving factory work to cheaper third world countries. Economic disparity has gotten so bad in the US in the past couple of decades that, effectively, places like Alabama now qualify as "third world" in that economic game.
- kesselvon 9y agoSouth has always been an internal resource colony feeding the factories in the north. Now that services dominates the economy, all the activity concentrates in cities while the south manufactures.
- jdminhbg 9y agoThe per capita GDP of Alabama is $5k higher than that of (e.g.) France: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=per+capita+gdp+of+alabama+and+france http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=per+capita+gdp+of+alaba...