Week Two In Everett: A Heat Wave and Designing Inside Your Airplane

As my first full work week in Everett comes to a close, I'd like to share a few thoughts with you about the past two weeks.


Is It Really Hot In Here or Are You Just A Pansy?

To my great pleasure and amazement, the weather while I've been here has been phenomenal. I know from past experience the Pacific Northwest is a gorgeous place when the sun is shining, but that same experience has shown me those days are few and far between. It's only rained one day since I've been here, and that was brief at best. There have been some days that started out overcast and dreary, but every one has ended with the sun shining and barely a cloud in the sky.

Since I have been basking in the glory of the recent weather, I've been highly amused at how the locals have responded to it. South Texas this year has been unseasonably warm. We normally get only a handful of days with triple digit temperatures and they typically occur in late summer. This year we started pretty close to Memorial Day and have already tied our record for the most triple digit days in a year. Factor in the humidity and it's been damn hot. I was thus highly amused during my first week here when, on the evening news, a live news van was beaming pictures of people at a park diving into fountains, dousing themselves with hoses, and ranting about how it was finally cool enough to come outside and escape the oppressive 80 degree temperatures.

Seriously people? My thermostat at home is set at 80 degrees.

I know most people here do not have air conditioning, and that's why I was sympathetic last week when Seattle did register a record-setting triple digit temperature. At work, we had to relocate a going away party for a coworker from a brewery with no air conditioning to a restaurant with air conditioning. Really? You can't even brave the heat to drink a cold beer? Pacific Northwest, I don't know if we can be friends anymore.

The Boeing Dreamliner Gallery

Wednesday, before the air-conditioned going away party, I had an opportunity to visit the Dreamliner Gallery. This is the place airline customers go to configure their new airplane once they've made the decision to purchase a shiny new 787. If you've ever bought a newly constructed house, the process is very much like going to the builder's design center.

The building is located a couple miles away from the main factory in Everett. From the outside, you can't really tell what's inside. The building is in the midst of a business complex and has a very sleek, modern look with the Boeing logo displayed on the front. Once inside, you walk into a spacious lobby with a round desk below a flat screen television looping footage of recently-accomplished milestones on the production line. Just inside the door and to the left is a beautiful, six foot tall model of the new airplane with working lights. On the opposite side of the door is a giant touch screen monitor displaying facts and statistics about the new aircraft, current customers, and comparisons with other aircraft in its class. The place wreaks of modern sophistication.

Although we were all Boeing employees on the tour, we had to be escorted by a gallery employee who walked us through the modern facility as if we were customers. The first stop was the home suite. On either side of the giant lobby are single doors protected by electronic card key locks like what you might find in a hotel. Outside each door is an illuminated sign about a feet wide with a house on it. All of the signage within the gallery is iconic and color coded; there are no written words anywhere. This is obviously to accommodate the dozens of cultural and language differences of our customers. One of the home suite doors was closed, the house sign next to it illuminated red. Our guide led us through the door on the opposite side which was open and featured a house illuminated greeen.

The door leads down a short narrow hallway that opens up to a spacious common area. The room looks like the living room of a luxury model home. A large flat screen television is mounted on the wall and surrounded by couches and comfy chairs. The scene is reminiscent of what you might find at an airline's own first class lounge. Of course there is audio-visual equipment galore and Wi-Fi throughout the building. There are two doorways at either end of the room. One leads to a small executive office with a desk and chair, in case an airline executive accompanies the design team and needs to work. The other doorway leads to a large, fully-equipped conference room. This is where customers can come to consult with their sales representative or each other about design decisions, prices, etc. I immediately wanted to buy an airplane just so I could come and experience this room.

From the home suite, the gallery is designed in the shape of a horseshoe. Walking back out into the lobby, we proceeded down the hall and began our trip around the shoe. The first thing we pass is a self-service kitchen with a fleet of coffee and cappuccino machines. Again a flat screen television hangs on the wall as well as various framed news articles bragging about 787 features and milestones. Here customers can come to take a break and relax while decisions are mulled over or information is brought from subject matter experts at the factory a few minutes away. Continuing down the hall, we arrived at a door with a picture of a movie screen illuminated green next to it--the universal sign that this room is available. Inside the theater, we watched a brief film about the features of the 787 and the types of customization decisions we were about to make. The room is also equipped with a rounded projection screen where 3D models of the airplane can be viewed as well as "fly-throughs" of a particular interior configuration. It's the type of thing you would expect to see at NASA or in a Star Trek movie.

Proceeding around the horseshoe, we were taken to rooms where we would select our seats and in flight entertainment options, sit in a mock up of the cockpit, choose fabrics and color patterns, and even climb into the three configuration options for crew rest compartments. Every room is configured and designed to allow the customer to experience hands-on the spatial relationships and true look, touch, and feel of the interior design of their airplane. The element of surprise is clearly not an option when purchasing a $150 million airplane.

The two largest rooms are where seats and galleys are selected. Perhaps the most impressive of these for me was the latter. Here customers can view galley cabinets galore and decide whether they want spaces for two coffee makers or one microwave; one trash compactor, or three beverage carts. I had no idea there were so many options in configuring a galley--and the 787 is a "standard configuration" airplane compared to other models like a 747 or 777. The are about two dozen different options for galley equipment, and all are on display. They are also functional, and each piece of equipment can be taken to a working galley area where customers can cook food from their catering vendor to see how it will taste in a particular piece of equipment.

Throughout the entire Dreamliner Gallery experience, I get the impression that over ninety years of lessons learned while helping customers design the inside of their airplane has been incorporated into this one modern, streamlined facility. I have obviously never bought an airplane, so I really have nothing to compare the Gallery to in terms of airplane manufacturers. I have bought a house and a few cars though, and this was like going to a luxury dealership where customer comfort and convenience are the highest priority.

At work, people often see me scratch my head in confusion and utter the phrase "we've been making [insert our product here] for how many years?" in response to some things we do that don't always seem to make sense. I think this is one thing we definitely got right. Check it out for yourself by clicking here or searching Google for "Dreamliner Gallery".