Painters working at Boeing Salt Lake now breathe easier thanks to a 2013 Tauber Team Project.

The second place 2013 SPOTLIGHT! winners Simon Bank (EGP, MSE-IOE '14) and Benjamin Brelje (EGL, BSE/MSE-AE '14)  recommended introducing robotic painting at Boeing Salt Lake’s paint facility as the most efficient and cost effective way to increase the facility’s capacity.  But in addition to demonstrating production gains, Bank and Brelje highlighted the safety and environmental benefits of their plan.  They predicted that workers would experience greatly reduced paint fume exposure and risk of ergonomic hazards, and that rework elimination and paint application improvements would reduce paint consumption and hazardous material impact to the environment.

Now Boeing has implemented automation at Salt Lake, and management, engineers, and workers are pleased with the result.  Retrained painters who operate the new robots find they can achieve an extremely high level of quality in less than half the time, while avoiding the fumes and repetitive motion strain that had previously been part of their job.

The experience of working on the Boeing Salt Lake Tauber Team Project was excellent for Bank and Brelje as well.  "I could not have asked for a better all-around summer internship than my Tauber project with Boeing in Salt Lake City,” said Bank, “The Boeing team gave my teammate and me a tremendous amount of freedom, responsibility and support throughout the 14 week project.  The Tauber Institute has not just prepared me for a job in operations but provided me the knowledge and tools to thrive in it!"

Watch a video highlighting the new painting process and learn more about the success of automation at Boeing Salt Lake.

About Tauber Institute for Global Operations
The Tauber Institute for Global Operations is a joint venture between the University of Michigan’s Stephen M. Ross School of Business and the College of Engineering, and many industry partners to facilitate cross-disciplinary education in global operations management. In addition to broad array of core and elective courses, the innovative LeadershipAdvantage^SM Program provides students with the tools to ascend to major operations leadership roles. Well-designed and managed team projects form the cornerstone of the Tauber Institute experience and allow students to apply their knowledge to real world settings. The Tauber Institute is an inaugural recipient of the UPS George D. Smith Prize for effective and innovative preparation of students to be good practitioners of operations research, management science, or analytics. http://www.tauber.umich.edu

Contact:
Theresa Ceccarelli 734-647-0308 [email protected]