Originally Posted by
WillowRun 6-3
At what point in time should Boeing have made the change to automated methods in the past?
The degree of manufacturing automation that can be applied to an aircraft programme is, to a large extent, baked in at the design stage. In the case of the 737, that was 60-odd years ago.
I have no doubt that, had Boeing decided on a clean-sheet successor to the 737, it would have been manufactured in a completely different manner.