5 questions with Duane Hawkins

Duane Hawkins came to Spirit AeroSystems a little more than two years ago with a 28-year background in the defense industry.

And now the 57-year-old father of four boys is responsible for overseeing the biggest piece of the Wichita-based company’s business: manufacturing large parts of Boeing commercial airliners.

Probably the biggest challenge ahead of Hawkins is the successful execution of increasing monthly production of the fuselage of the Boeing 737, starting this year. That will be followed next year with increased monthly production of the forward composite fuselage of Boeing’s newest jet, the 787.

But Hawkins said Spirit will be ready to take on higher production of the two airplanes when the time comes.

His even-keel attitude about his challenges ahead at Spirit could also partly be a reflection of his upbringing in Southern California, where “I spent a lot of my formative years surfing,” he said.

“But I did go to school,” Hawkins added, including at Brigham Young University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering, and later Regis University, where he earned a master’s degree in business administration.

Q. How did your job change when you were promoted in June from senior vice president of operations to senior vice president and general manager of Boeing, business and regional jet and defense programs?

A. I was always engaged with the Boeing programs obviously because that’s the biggest part of our business, and I was engaged with the defense part, too, because I actually brought that with me from operations.

And I’m more engaged at all different levels with Boeing … and then more actively engaged in the detailed profit and loss numbers, financial numbers, for the programs. So that’s been the biggest change.

Q. You’ll have to orchestrate the adjustment of production rates of Boeing 737 and 787, and the switch from 737 Next Generation to the 737 Max. It seems like a big challenge. Can you talk about how you’re preparing the company for that adjustment?

A. When the company was first formed, we were doing 21 737s a month, and we’re now at 42 going to 47. We’ve done this before. We’re not concerned about it.

What we do, we look at our facility arrangements, our capital requirements, our tooling requirements, and we have time to go make all that stuff happen. … So really all the elements of ramping up rates are in place, and we’re excited about it.

Q. Have you faced an equal challenge before in your career?

A. The challenges that I faced at Raytheon, a lot of those were in the area of technology, just technology advancements in missiles and missile systems, but we also had tremendous rate growth, particularly after 9/11, in the areas of Tomahawk, AMRAAM and Paveway laser-guided bomb programs. In many of those programs we had to double or triple our capacity for obvious reasons.

The challenges here aren’t so much in terms of technology. They’re more to make sure we apply manufacturing technology in the right places.

Q. Was there much of a learning curve for you going from the defense industry to commercial aviation?

A. It’s a large market and … there’s a lot of complexities. That was probably the biggest challenge for me, just learning the market.

In terms of manufacturing and operations, a lot of the concepts and principles are the same no matter where you go, particularly in the defense/aerospace side. It’s really just learning the product and processes here at Spirit. And I’m very comfortable with it now.

Q. How do you think the Cougars will do this season without the injured Taysom Hill?

A. I believe that the new quarterback, Tanner Mangum, is a special quarterback, akin to the old days when I went to BYU (and) Steve Young and Jim McMahon (were the quarterbacks).

He’s only a freshman, so he could stay with them another three years. This is the most excited I’ve been about BYU football since I went there.

This story was originally published September 30, 2015 at 3:34 PM with the headline "5 questions with Duane Hawkins."