The Boeing Co. will shuffle the assembly lines in its mammoth Everett factory in August, moving the 777 line to a new space and making room for the new 7E7.
The move will allow the 777 program to expand on the moving assembly line the company implemented in the spring, spokeswoman Leslie Nichols said.
The move is scheduled for Aug. 5.
Boeing’s Everett factory covers 282 acres under one roof but it is subdivided into spaces that the company considers separate buildings.
The 777 program now occupies Building 40-25, which was built in 1993. With the move, it will shift next door into two spaces – buildings 40-26 and 40-36. To passersby on Highway 526, that’s the far eastern end of the building.
The 777’s new home is largely empty now, Nichols said. That’s a plus, because it will allow Boeing to run two of the stretched jets down the moving assembly line at a time. The current 777 buildings are partially blocked by massive tools that can’t be moved, so there’s not enough room to do that without moving the line.
The 777-300 model is Boeing’s longest plane, at 242 feet long – 11 feet longer than the 747. The 777-200 is 209 feet long.
Having the plane in the buildings at the edge of the factory also will allow the company to implement some just-in-time parts delivery plans, Nichols added.
Meanwhile, the 7E7 program will slip into the space the 777 is vacating.
The smaller 7E7 won’t take up as much space – both the 7E7-3 and 7E7-8 models will be 182 feet long – Nichols said. And because Boeing’s suppliers are delivering largely completed sections to the factory, it won’t require room for workers to put together sections inside the factory, as the 777 program does.
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