Boeing Still Struggling with Dreamliner Production

Seattle Times: As Boeing's 787 Dreamliner program creeps toward first delivery this year, managers are intensifying efforts to smooth production. But people working on the airplanes and others familiar with the state of the program say progress is painfully slow.

While Boeing may meet its deadline to deliver the first 787 to All Nippon Airways of Japan before Sept. 30, the production pace projected for 2011 appears out of reach. Boeing executives told Wall Street analysts in January the company would deliver somewhere between a dozen and 20 Dreamliners this year.

"It isn't going to happen," said one mechanic working on the airplanes. "There are too many jobs to be done." One job taking weeks per airplane is the painstaking removal of sealant from the interior of fuel tanks in the wings, then resealing them.

Managers last week held all-hands meetings aimed at galvanizing the work force, and formed employee committees to identify and solve the major holdups. Six Dreamliners are flying flight tests, while 29 more have rolled off the assembly line and are parked on the Everett flight line or at adjacent Paine Field. Those planes await thousands of incomplete assembly jobs and modifications necessary because of design changes since they were built.

Boeing spokeswoman Lori Gunter conceded Monday that the rework is a difficult challenge, and she acknowledged the two specific problems raised by 787 insiders: the wing sealing and the computer data glitches. Still, she insisted, there is a "very specific airplane by airplane plan" for completing the rework. "Nothing we've seen ... is raising red flags for us," she said.

In an effort to come to grips with the extensive rework, Boeing is modifying one Dreamliner in Texas, two more inside the main Everett assembly plant, and five airplanes inside a large hangar at the south end of Paine Field leased from maintenance and repair company Aviation Technical Services (ATS).

Yet, those close to the program say production headaches continue. "The assembly process is still a mess," an engineer said. "They are building airplanes in the final-assembly process that then have to be rebuilt in the pickup process, which is many times longer." Parts that don't fit, including doors and control surfaces on the wings, still are arriving in Everett. "The wings on the 787s aren't even close to being ready," the engineer said.

The employees spoke on condition of anonymity because Boeing doesn't allow them to talk about their work.

Sorting it all out is made much more difficult because of the balky computerized system that manages all the data about specific parts. Mechanics are spending hours trying to call up parts information and drawings before performing any rework or modification. And individual jets have been reworked so often that engineers have a hard time just figuring out what is the particular configuration of parts and assemblies on a particular plane.

"Productivity has crashed," said another employee with knowledge of how the computer system is failing. "A worker spends four hours a day on the computer just trying to pull up his work."

Boeing has been hiring mechanics steadily to beef up its work force and by the summer plans to have 1,200 people working at the ATS hangar, which the work force has dubbed "Factory South."

"Boeing is throwing money and bodies at the problem," the mechanic said.

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