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Home | Update | LATEST ISSUE | Gallery | FR Profile | Datafiles | FR 8/98 BOEING BATTLES PRODUCTION PROBLEMS by Norbert Burgner Boeing has bitten off more than it can chew. After continuing problems with production have cost the worlds biggest aircraft manufacturer approximately 2.6 billion US-dollars, and the company found itself in the red with a deficit of 178 million US-dollars, the new year has not begun much better. For the first quarter of 1998 the Seattle-based company had to suffer new financial losses because of continuing delays in the assembly plants. However, financial loss was not the only consequence of the self-inflicted shortage of parts, which resulted from forcing up production rates. These partially resulted in chaotic conditions in the assembly plants. At the beginning of March Boeing customers started to vent their anger. They were justified in doing so: In Boeing's factory in Renton the wrong wings, i.e. some intended for a larger version, were allegedly fitted onto a 737-400 for Air Berlin. On the way from the factory in Wichita to Renton the fuselage of a 737-800 for Hapag-Lloyd was said to have been damaged by a train. During assembly a water container literally fell onto the roof of a 737-700 intended for the Danish Maersk Air, and during the assembly of the wings of a -800, again for Air Berlin, one wing was accidentally dropped and damaged considerably. Finally another 737 received the wrong paintwork; that this aircraft was again intended for Air Berlin must be a coincidence. These are embarrassments that are not worthy of a big company like Boeing. The disgraceful situation is only made worse by inadequate attempts at appeasement such as the ones displayed by Boeing Commercial President Ron Woodard, If one shifts 75 million pieces per week, things are bound to happen. Do these words mean that similar things have always been going on at the world's leading aircraft manufacturer? This does not exactly instill confidence. The latest eyewitness accounts from Seattle are not encouraging: Half finished aircraft are being parked outside production hangars in order to complete, what can be completed with the available components the next morning. According to rumours, unpainted 737 are being flown from Renton to the Boeing field, because the plant has run out of parking space. After arrival the engines are being dismantled and shipped back, because they are necessary for the transfer of the next 737. It must almost sound burlesque when one listens to the latest plans for 757 production. A 757-300 for Condor is at least partially being assembled in the open air. People who know the climate in the Puget-Sound will also know what this means: Days with only one shower are amongst the nicer ones in the year. To build planes in these conditions is, to put it mildly, adventurous. "Well, doesn't anything rust?" the layman might ask himself justifiably. One thing will rust for sure:  the customer's trust. In its defence Boeing states, that after the take-over of Rockwell and the mega-merger with McDonnell Douglas the proper integration will mean a lot of hard work. However, these events have not been imposed from the outside, but they are self-inflicted against the backdrop of the primary target of raising shareholder-value. And these mainly administrative processes should fundamentally not be considered as serious excuses for the described production conditions. The world's biggest aircraft manufacturer has proved in a strange way, that striving for dominance can become self-damaging at a certain point. The arch-rival Airbus is pleased. Any loss of time during the Boeing expansion means time gained for the Airbus integration. From page 4 of FLUG REVUE 8/98 Home | Update | LATEST ISSUE | Gallery | FR Profile | Datafiles | FR 8/98 Copyright 1998 by Motor-Presse Stuttgart. All rights reserved. Last updated July 13, 1998 FLUG REVUE, Ubierstr. 83, 53173 Bonn, Germany