The introduction will deepen Boeing’s move into automation, in line with the plane maker’s plans to boost the output of its best-selling airliner, the National reported. 

Last year, Boeing started using an automated system known as the Panel Assembly Line (Pal) to drill holes and install fasteners in wing panels of 737 jets at its Renton, Washington plant. The upcoming system, known as the Spar Assembly Line, or Sal, will not carry out all the tasks performed by Pal but will speed drill and install bolts in the wing spars in about half the space used by an earlier generation machine.

Boeing says greater automation will cut the amount of “rework” caused by production glitches, reduce injuries and support sharp increases in output at factories such as Renton, where wings pulse through the assembly hall every 5.3 hours.

Sal will make sub-assemblies that go into the wings. Each 737 wing has two spars, front and back, running the length of the wing and to which panels are attached.

"We are really pushing the envelope in terms of how to be more productive,” said Pat Shanahan, the senior vice president of supply chain and operations at Boeing.