Kyle Kilvington: Hi, welcome to the Autism News NetWORK. My name is Kyle Kilvington and I am interviewing Lane Ballard, director of South Carolina’s Boeing factory. How are you today.

Lane Ballard: Wonderful. Thanks for having me.

Kyle Kilvington: What is your role as director and what do you do as site leader?

Lane Ballard: The primary role is to deliver these great aircraft that are behind us to customers around the world. But in order to do that, this company is built on the people that work here. So, my main job is to keep them happy. When you talk about the engineers, the ops, the maintenance, the housekeepers, my job is to make sure everybody has what they need to do their jobs so that we can deliver these wonderful aircraft out of South Carolina.

Kyle Kilvington: That’s awesome. What is your educational background?

Lane Ballard: I went to Virginia Tech in Virginia, and then I went to MIT and got my business degree and I have a master’s in engineering.

Kyle Kilvington: Do you have a history with the aeronautics industry?

Lane Ballard: I have 23 years with Boeing and in college I did a lot of work in aeronautics. So yeah, I have a passion for flying and space.

Kyle Kilvington: That’s awesome to know. What is the most fun part of your job?

Lane Ballard: Most fun part of my job, I get to meet great people like yourself, Kyle, as well as walking the floor and getting on these great products. Two and a half million parts that come together that deliver to an aircraft customer that’s going to fly billions of miles over its lifetime. It’s pretty fascinating. So I love being on the floor, seeing the product and being able to see these great aircrafts come together.

Kyle Kilvington: How did you first get involved with Boeing.

Lane Ballard: An intern. I had a fascination with flying. Boeing was the premier aerospace company and I got an internship. I was lucky enough to come in on an internship in Seattle, Washington. And then from there, like I said, 23 years later, I’ve had the chance to live on three continents and work on defense and commercial space aircraft. And I’m just lucky to be here in South Carolina, leading the site.

Kyle Kilvington: That is really cool. I love what I’ve seen so far on our tour.

Lane Ballard: Well, thank you.

Kyle Kilvington: But have you ever worked with people who have autism before now?

Lane Ballard: I haven’t had the benefit yet, directly. Indirectly though, I have a lot of colleagues and neighbors who have children who have autism or adults that have autism. And so, I’ve been able to, of course, learn more about that.

Actually, one of the roles that I have here on the site and what brought me to your great organization is called the Boeing Employees Ability Awareness Association. And that’s an association here on the site. That’s focused on the business reason of how do we attract talent like yourself. And once you’re here, maintain that talent so that you want to stay. Because at Boeing, we need to have a very diverse environment where the best of everyone shows up to work.

Another example is the mask I’m wearing. You’ll notice it’s clear. The reason that’s clear is because there’s a lot of people that can’t hear as well as us, and they need to read lips. And unfortunately, with COVID those masks cover up your lips. So we occasionally, use these masks to allow lip readers in order to understand what’s being said.

Kyle Kilvington: That was an awesome idea and awesome invention. What role has your family played in your success?

Lane Ballard: Everything. I mean, not only my mom and dad, but of course, I have two young girls and a wife, born and raised here in South Carolina. And family is everything. It’s what we work for. It’s where our hopes and futures lie in our kids. So it’s just an important part of my life.

Kyle Kilvington: What is Boeing doing to increase awareness with individuals with special needs?

Lane Ballard: We do a lot of work in the community because again, our community is older. You take autism, for example. A lot of the teammates here have kids or relatives with autism. Getting them to understand how they can be successful in life. And more importantly, all the advantages that people with autism bring to the table. We have lots of vets of the war that want to work here at Boeing, young generation. We just have women in engineering.

Kyle Kilvington: It’s very diverse.

Lane Ballard: It’s very diverse. And we need to make sure that, again, we have a place that people want to come and work at, where they can feel they can bring the best of themselves to work every day.

Kyle Kilvington: That’s awesome. What do you see for the future of flight in this industry?

Lane Ballard: Behind you here, the 787 is the most fuel efficient plane there is, high flying wise. It’s 22% more efficient than most of the planes it replaces. And it’s even 11% more over our competitor, Airbus. But it really is around how do we improve the environment. And this plane being so fuel efficient, it saves on fuel tremendously, which means you can go further with less gas.

It actually has designs in it. In fact that the engines you’ll note, look like they’re scallop or like a bird’s wing. And the reason they’re scalloped like that is to reduce the noise signature. So again, it’s applying technology towards aviation and getting towards efficient aircraft that are less noisy, that burn less fuel, and get you there faster. In addition, here in the low country, I mean, we have the 787 program, but we actually, just up the road, have research in the areas of space and defense. So, we work on the next-generation of rocket technology as well.

Kyle Kilvington: That is awesome. Why is communication important with all of the parts that are needed for a plane? Specifically, this one we learned is 2.3 million parts.

Lane Ballard: That’s right. Yeah. 2.3 million parts coming from over 160 countries, tens of thousands of suppliers. So how do you make sure everything gets to one place so that we can deliver to a customer on a single day? And you mentioned communication. You can’t do it via Zoom or Webex only. There’s got to be some face time attribute to it. There’s got to be some face-to-face.

Diversity again, you’ve got to make sure everybody can speak up and mention if there’s a problem so that you can fix it quickly. So we’ve got to have a society and a company where everybody feels they can speak up and be included in the conversation.

Kyle Kilvington: As a leader of a big company, what advice would you give us, the Autism News NetWORK?

Lane Ballard: I think storytelling is powerful and the human element is powerful. And that’s why I really like what you guys have already posted on the Autism News NetWORK. I’m excited to see what you do with some of this content as well.

Getting back to power is in diversity. And I think the Autism News NetWORK is driving that diversity. It’s understanding. It’s making sure people that aren’t as familiar with autism, understand what it is about and what great advantages there are to the people that have it. And so I would just say, keep going with what you’re doing and continue to open the eyes of the low country and beyond, for sure. Yeah.

Kyle Kilvington: This is Lane Ballard, Boeing’s South Carolina’s site leader. My name is Kyle Kilvington and thank you for joining the Autism News NetWORK.