The Boeing Everett Factory Tour

* The photos are reproduced from the tour brochure.

To see the largest passenger planes being assembled !

PART 1

Wow!.... On a lazy saturday, Nikhil, Shiv and myself decided to take the tour.

http://www.boeing.com/companyoffices/aboutus/tours/

Umm, the new age kids...you ask them, 'Where do we get milk from?' .. their answer most probably, would be ' The refrigerator!' (No offence meant to anyone, any generation!) . Well, my answer to a question 'Where do the planes come from' would be similar to some degree. Yes, I know they are built in huge spaces, by robots and robotic men and women, but did I ever imagine of visiting the worlds largest factory (by volume the largest building in the world!) to see this.....a big NO!
Thanks to the opportunity of being in Seattle, we were off. Not too far from our place (30 miles, I guess).

We didnt bother to book online. It was easy, as ticket booking at any counter is, in the US. We were among the 10 folks who took the 10:30 Am tour. The group had representation from India (thats us and another Indian family), folks from Korea, China, and some locals ( Americans from different states) .

As we sat in the auditorium, with bated breath, a lady emerged from the shadows and introduced her self as the tour guide. She seemed to be a veteran in this. Carefully chosen words, to explain the rules and regulations of the tour, and doing her best to be as succinctly informative as possible! 'No cameras or any gadgets in the tour', she warned! Looking at our curious faces, she went on to explain the rationale. Apparently, few tours ago, an excited teenager, frantically taking snaps of the assembly process below (the tour walk is at quite a height so that we can observe the interesting stuff below), accidentally dropped the camera. It hit one of the air - plane parts being assembled and one thing led to another and there were damages worth over a couple of million ! Hearing this, i guess, each one of us immediately calculated the number of years we would have to be on this planet to repay the debt from our meagre earnings, and some of us, even didnt bother taking the effort....A couple quickly got up to hand over all items at the reception.

After this initial and most important clarification, we were told to sit back and relax, and watch two short video clips - first about the BOEING history and then on the assembly process of a giant 747 !

Both were remarkable. Power packed! Watching the planes, I couldnt help but marvel the ingenuity of the Wright brothers and William Boeing and their respective dreams. Looking at the assembly video gave me goosebumps. How efficiently and laboriously (lot of automation, and a much larger manual labour) are these flying machines built! We were getting impatient. We wanted to quickly get to the place where all the action is....

Sensing this, the tour operator (TO) asked us to board a tour bus waiting outside. Ironically in this hi-tech complex, the bus microphone was not working ! Our tour guide, banged the box, cursed the microphone and after many such futile attempts, gave up and cleared her throat. She had a pleasant voice and all of us could hear her clearly. As the bus got on its way, she pointed to our right, and we could see the test fields! Here, all the assembled planes, were ready to be taken for a test flight (untill now my world was restricted to test drives. I was in the process of buying a used car and was busy taking test drives at user car dealers, prospective private sellers!) by the customers. We saw planes ordered by Singapore Airlines, Angola Airlines (they fly!!!??), and others waiting for their turn. That field itself, was bigger than the Mumbai Airport!

The TO added: ' The planes are test flown by the customers' pilots and if all is well, they fly it to their own hangars. BOEING does not ship the planes'.

Slowly the bus was on a road bridge, and this one was on top of a free way! A private brigde on a free way! This was meant for the planes to be taken out of the hangar and then park them in the fields for the test drive, oops, flight. Untill a few years ago, this was done in the day and it used to cause mayhem below on the freeway. Startled and pleasantly surprised folks got out of their cars abruptly to take a quick snap before the gigantic 747 dissappeard. Confusion and a few accidents later, the BOEING management decided to do this only in the night !

After crossing the bridge, we were confronted with the largest building in the world. Not tallest, but the largest in terms of volume. I strained my neck to make a quick grasp of the expanse and almost pulled a muscle!

PART 2

We slowly entered the building and were made to walk in a single line, behind our leading lady. Staff, taking a break, walked by us. They were dressed in casuals, one just too casual, in a sweat sogging half shirt and a almost fully torn, faded pair of cut jeans. Wanted the extra ventilation, I guess.

The TG was sharing some interesting trivia. Some of the introductory ones were,

a. It can take more than a year (nowadays its getting shorter) from a time a customer places an order until the airplane is ready to be delivered. About half the time is needed to get the parts, a 747 has just 6 million for example. These are sent to this factory to be assembled from hundreds of suppliers spread across the globe.

b. Talking about suppliers and supplies, the costliest ones, guess.....the engines, are procured from GE, Pratt and Whitney, and Rolls Royce.

c. We all know US exports comprise mainly of arms (to maintain peace around the world, if I may put it) and wings! In 2004, Washington state accounted for 17 billion US dollars of them, just by exports of Aircraft, Spacecraft and Parts. Chunk of that comes from factories such as these!

At the viewing section on the top, specially built for the tour. We could see the giants below, slowly being built with precision, looking so bare without the fancy paint and the finishing. Believe me, building a plane is laborious. Yes, theres the technology to make life easier, friendly robots and all, but for example each of those window moulds have to be installed manually. Each row of seats need to be fixed firmly, and tested multiple times. On so on...takes almost 6 months to assemble a 747. For a moment all this didnt seem too interesting or challenging. Planes are passe ! And building them seems no longer a hearty challenge. I dont want to be in the shoes of one of those technicians, diligently playing god, with the responsibilty of assembling the pieces together with six sigma perfection.

The next moment, it seems fascinating..designing new flying machines to take the skies, always striving to make aviation cheaper, faster, less risky and of course to make it more profitable (isnt that the goal of any business!).....the skys no limit, literally. The 787 dreamliner by Boeing is one small step. This jet is expected to rule the skies in 2008. About half of it, is constructed of composite materials, making it about 40,000 pounds lighter than other similar airplanes. They claim of it being 20 % more fuel efficient and shorter by 20 % in fuel emissions. And yes, it is also meant to be more comfortable to passengers.

We were enamoured to say the least. As the TG took us down again, we thought something else is in store. Unfortunately, an hour for the tour makes it feel like an abrupt end to a fantasy. We were just getting into the mood, to probably go down and pat on the back of those technicians, encouraging them to keep up the good work!, but sadly none of this was on the cards. We were made to board the waiting tour bus, the lady driver, definitely sensing our discomfort on being grounded so soon, greeting us warmly with a beautiful smile!

As we returned to the base, to a new entrance, no prizes for guessing what was on the other side of it. The gift and souvenir shop! Caps, miniature models, key chains, cards, all with neatly marked price tags. Each one, enticing on its own right! I bought a key chain! I felt that was good enough to remind of me of the short, but enriching tour of something that I had least expected to see, ever!

On our way out, I played the flying captain in one of the dummy cockpits out there.

As I switched a few buttons on and off, I couldnt help looking for the rear view mirror !!

Fights and Patchups

1. Communication gaps - Altercations - Fights - Stress - Loathing - Life

2. Communication gaps - Altercations - Fights - Calm - Communication - Peace - Patchups - Life

Yesterday I had a minor tiff with my flat mate. I think we ended up as mentioned in point 1.

I hope we can quickly shift gears to point 2 and get on with life ! :)

The library !

I am a sucker for books! Deep down, I know I am. But I had never been able to easily expose myself to the world of wodehouse, kafka, tintin, asmiov, sheldon, seth, lapierre, agatha christie and others (not in any specific order) at the same time and at the same place. The Asiatic Library in erstwhile Bombay ( ya ya its Mumbai now), was in deep downtown and almost out of reach to the suburbian (dont know if this word exists in the dictionary) folk. The British Library, as the name suggests, was for books authored by Britis authors, and similar to the Asiatic, was out of reach.

Although, I could blame myself for not taking the 'pain' of taking the local train all the way for picking and dropping off a few books. But, I cant be solely blamed for this. The government assumed that suburbian folk (again) were somehow less intrigued by literature and were probably more focussed on livelihood, survival, politics and academics (in that order!). Hence, I would assume, they did not build any public libraries, where bulk of the population lived.

Libraries in colleges/universities/schools were good. They were full of books. Mostly academic. I already had enough of them, thanks to my professors. The thought of going to the library for more studies, made me sick.

My idea of a library is something like this. Atleast 10 storeys tall, with multiple seating and reading rooms, tons and tons of neatly stacked books and segregated as per field, author, academic/non academic, age groups, and so on and so forth. Add in an auditorium for book reading, discussion groups, and community building activities. And of course, free!
I would love to be lost in this world.

I did visit a library like I have mentioned above. Last weekend, in downtown Seattle, I went to the Seattle Public Library. It took me 5 minutes to avail a membership card and I was free to browse and read whatever caught my eye in those hundreds of shelves. I was like a child, running around, looking at the different sections and books, and simply overjoyed. I also found a lot of homeless citizens, using the library for shelter, simply seated there and waiting for the day to pass in solitude. And of course, the ubiquitous STARBUCKS.

As I browsed through the sections, I realized that in the US, these are basic facilities, in every main city. I did not want to tread further into yet another deep US - India comparison that we as Indians in foreign land generally do. I borrowed a few books of interest and headed out, with a resolution to make the most of this opportunity.

PS:
Starbucks, this coffeee chain is literally round the corner, everywhere in Seattle.

Seattle Downtown Pictures

Its always a treat to go here...it feels like mumbai's marine drive

It was 17:45 when we decide to catch a movie at the AMC theatres! And the movie was Casino Royale!

The streets are lit, thanks to the festive season.

Pandora

Your own seamless jukebox...

Read more about the Music Genome Project at

http://www.pandora.com/mgp.shtml

And log onto

www.pandora.com to set up your free account and to rock and roll !

Prakash

PS: Thanks lipi for introducing me to the Pandora ! Definitely a box to keep ! :)

How are you doing today?

Thats what the lady at the counter enquires, in a high pitch, and in the most elated of tones. ' How are you doing today ? '. 'GOOD' comes the response. I then add, ' What about you ? '. The lady replies, with beaming eyes, ' I am doing good too'.

This is a ritual, a daily one. Rather something that is replicated at every counter, of every store that I go to in the US. I find it so mundane, an opening act for any business to be conducted, for any discussion to begin. Can you ever imagine speaking the truth in this act? Can I say, ' Well, my girlfriend left me yesterday, and sob, I am not feeling good today !'. And if the lady at the counter goes mushy with me, the folks at the queue behind,wont be too impressed with my sob story. 'Hey dude, say that to your therapist. In US, we have such folks specifically for the unhappy people. The lady at the counter is not meant for your sobs.'

Boo Hoo

Cab Lessons

Hello Parkaashhh, How are you doing today? Shall we go?

The previous day, I had booked a cab to take me to the airport. I had a business meeting at LA. Abdul Qadir, my seattle cab driver, comes 15 minutes prior to my start time from home. I am one of his regular cab customers and he is good company during the 30 minute drive to the airport. He still finds it hard to pronounce my name, but I do find it amusing to be called Parkaashh.

He drives the cab 5 days a week for 10 hrs a day, then he works in the weekend as a pharmacist trainee at Walgreens and also attends the Bellevue Community College to take Pharmacy classes. He sometimes assists his teacher as a lab assistant. 3 jobs and classes to attend...too much too do for a living? Nope. Abdul is simply driven because of his dream, a dream to become a pharmacist, to have a good job to support his family, here and back home in Somalia, and more importantly to earn respect from folks around him who treat him as nothing more than a cab driver !

He is happy the way I talk to him with respect. He says I am his favorite customer. Yeah, he must be saying that to all his regular patrons. But according to him he has a reason - He relates himself to the indian community. The work ethics, the desire to lead a better life, the ability to communicate in the same language, the capacity to do any kind of job...these are the qualities that inspire him to live his dream.
He knows me well now. I have hired his cab services three times till date and each time he tells me how good it is that I had the opportunity to complete my education before I started working full time. I agree to that. He is envious, but he is also happy for me.

Abdul is 28, two years older to me, works his ass off and so do I. Every time, I take a ride, I learn something from the brief time I spend with him. Much more than what I learnt in the classroom!

Some Seattle Snaps !!

Seattle Dowtown & the Pike Place Market