Article: One lean, mean airplane: Boeing's P-8A Poseidon program is the latest to benefit from the company's cutting-edge approach to manufacturing.(Aerospace)

If ever there was a business that needed to continually reinvent itself, it's the aerospace industry--this applies to assembly processes as much as the product itself. The dustbin of history is filled to brimming with airplane builders that failed to make the grade.

Back in the 1980s and 1990s, Boeing Co. (Chicago) very nearly made its own trip to the dustbin when it found itself confronting decreased demand and increased competition from archrival Airbus (Toulouse, France). Instead of giving in, though, the company responded by dramatically improving its efficiency and productivity through what it calls the Boeing Production System.

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