New design-build teams replaced Boeing's traditional practice of dividing the work among disparate engineering departments. The goal was to resolve all design conflicts before physical assembly took place. In preparation for that new approach to creating aircraft, the company distributed about 2,000 terminals to the 777 design team, all of which were connected to what was then the world's largest grouping of IBM mainframes. In addition, key suppliers from around the world had instant access to the data and were notified of changes and modifications almost immediately. That way, the two teams could settle the issue before proceeding with the design prototype of the plane.
Technology solves integration problems in the prototyping process.
But, according to some reports, engineers on the 777 design-build teams deliberately introduced conflicts with other systems into their proposed designs. Although Boeing officially acknowledges only that interferences naturally evolved, according to at least one mechanical engineer, some of those interferences were intentional. So that engineers in one part of Boeing could use the interference to find the people in other parts of the company with whom they needed to discuss future design issues. In other words, the software's ability to notify appropriate parties about interferences became, at least in some instances, a tool to forge interactions between various groups within Boeing. The resulting conversations and negotiations resolved design conflicts before more serious problems could emerge.