Monday, July 11, 2011

Flightblogger: 787 production line halt for 1 month

Flightblogger revealed today that Boeing has halted any further shipments of 787 parts into Everett in order to allow the supply chain to catch up with shortages of parts as well as to address engineering changes.

According to the post this is the first work stoppage this year for the 787 line and started in early July. The stoppage will last until the first week on August though manufacturing work will continue on the airplanes that are currently on the line as well as those that are under going change incorporation.

Some corrections to my earlier post via Flightblogger's post: LN 46 which is the first 787 to be built in Charleston should start final assembly later this month perhaps as early as late this week and that aircraft will go to Air India.

Lastly, Flightblogger is also reporting that Boeing is planning to update the 787 delivery guidance during it's 2nd quarter results conference call scheduled for July 27th. Boeing is maintaining its plans to deliver 12 - 20 787s by the end of this year as well as to increase production from 2 to 2.5 787 per month this summer and to be pushing out 10 787s per month by the end of 2013. There should be more clarity on July 27th as to those plans.

Boeing is still preparing to deliver ANA's first 787 during the 3rd quarter (August/September) but what is unknown is the pace of follow on deliveries which appear to be sliding to the right. Air India was supposed to be receiving its first 787 around November and now it is understood to be scheduled for December. Similarly, Flightblogger said that Ethiopian was supposed to receive its first 787 in December 2011 and is now expected to receive it in March 2012.

These slides are probably a result of the extensive amount of re-work and change incorporation that each aircraft has to have done before they are delivered as well as feeding these changes back into the supply chain.

Read Flightblogger's post:

Flightblogger: Boeing holding 787 line for a month, to update 2011 delivery guidance

6 comments:

tommy said...

Hi Uresh,
Thanks for all the updates! In addition to the change in line #46 from Continental/United to Air India, I noticed when I took the Boeing factory tour on July 8th that the first three 787's in line (line #'s 40-42 as indicated by the piece of paper above the R1 door) all clearly had ANA rudders. It could be that line 40 just got whatever rudder was available and it will eventually be repainted, but it could also indicate that Boeing had one again reshuffled the firing order. Have your sources indicated anything regarding this?
Jeffsun

tommy said...

Hi Uresh,
here is a picture that confirms that ln #40 is indeed for ANA

Jeff

http://www.flickr.com/photos/simpilot459/5963318128/sizes/o/in/photostream/

larmeyers said...

102 in the air on a 15-hour flight plan from Guam back to Boeing... longest flight to date? Would validate UA IAH-AUK?

larmeyers said...

Hi there...

Sorry... correction the 15 hr flight is Guam to Paine... flying over HNL, LAX and GEG along the way.

johnv777 said...

Hello Uresh,
Do you have any information regarding ZA002's trip to Guam this week. Was it to conduct additional F&R/ETOP testing, or was it just to provide some sore of logistical support for ZA102 ?
Thanks
John

Uresh said...

Hi John,
It wasn't there for F&R/ETOPs purposes as the FAA wants Boeing to use a production representative airplane in those tests, that why they're using ZA102. It might be Boeing flight tests purposes is my guess.