Chapter 9 Walt Braithwaite 1995 Black Engineer of the Year THE
FOLLOWING ARTICLE, WRITTEN BY
TRAVIS E. MITCHELL, WAS FIRST PUBLISHED IN US BLACK ENGINEER & IT, CONFERENCE ISSUE 1995. Boeing’s Walt Braithwaite is sitting on top of the world these days. In his current capacity as vice president, Information Systems, Braithwaite is responsible for all information systems activities for Boeing’s Commercial Airplane Group. As the functional head, he is responsible for some 4,000 people and an annual budget in excess of $1 billion. According to his job description, “he has to make sure that the computing resources and infrastructure necessary to support design, production, and in-service support of all airplanes is in place.” In layman’s terms, it means that the commercial airplanes that Boeing produces won’t make the cut unless he gets the design, computer technology, and resources in place on the front end. Also, he has to ensure that these component parts stay in place during the entire production process—no small task. Braithwaite helped perfect Boeing’s use of computer technology in the design and manufacturing process. Through the use of computer-aided design, engineers now are able to assemble entire planes down to the smallest bolts, and trap out any flaws before the actual model is built. These innovations have saved millions of dollars in man-hours by cutting the research and development phase in half. “As an engineer, Walt has made innovative contributions to Boeing and the engineering community,” says Frank Shrontz, the Boeing Company chairman and chief executive officer. “His work in computer-integrated technology was crucial to the development of the CAD/CAM systems that now make it possible for us to design airplanes by computer.” “Since Walt joined Boeing, he has contributed to programs essential to the changes we are making in the way we design and
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