Monday, October 25, 2010

787 production update

UPDATE: Dominic Gates has article saying that the latest assembly pause is due to issxues at Alenia, again. No wonder James Albaugh is bringing 787-9 HTP production back in house. Read his article:

Dominic Gates: Boeing calls two week stop on 787 section deliveries to Everett

This past weekend I referred readers to Matt Cawby's web site which showed two 787 fuselage parts being loaded on the the LCF. Boeing has told me that due to high winds in the area, the parts were placed inside the aircraft so that they were out of the elements.

This must indicate that the back of 40-26 is pretty full with 787 parts since these sections could not be stored in the Boeing facilities at Everett.

Boeing has also said that they will tell 787 suppliers that they will have a slight pause in 787 parts shipments into Everett. The pause will average about 2 weeks depending on the supplier. Both suppliers as well as workers on the final assembly line will continue working on the aircraft as the pause only effects shipments into Everett. Here's Boeing's statement:

With regards to the sections being loaded onto the LCF:

We loaded those pieces back on because forecasters here predicted heavy winds and we didn’t want to have them sitting outside in those conditions. Nothing more.

With regards to the shipment pause:

We will formally notify partners in the days ahead that we are going to have a
slight (it’s different partner by partner but on average two weeks) pause in
shipments. As we said in summer, this is one way we will manage the production
system. Partners are continuing to work during this shipment pause as is the
final assembly team here in Everett.

1 comment:

Rajib said...

Simple reason for production 'floats'. Charleston cannot make much more than 2 shipsets per month while final assembly in Everett is running a rate 3 or 3,5 flow.