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Boeing Outsourcing

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A Dream Interrupted at Boeing
By Christopher Drew, New York Times News Service

Sure, outsourcing converts fixed costs into variable costs, as sound theory suggest. The question is: how much is too much? Did Boeing get it right with the Dreamliner?

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In Boeing’s cavernous plant here, temporary scaffolding rises alongside several of the first 787 Dreamliners ever to be built. Workers climb steel steps to slip everything from wiring to hydraulic systems into some of the planes.
In other bays, crews operate giant tools that help shape parts of wings being built for older-model 747s, 767s and 777s. Staccato blasts ring out from air-powered rivet guns. Cranes hoist finished wings and fuselage sections onto the assembly floor.
The scene is one of disciplined industry on a gigantic scale. But the fact remains that the scaffolding for the Dreamliners should never have been needed. The wings and major sections of the fuselage were supposed to arrive fully fitted from outside suppliers and simply be snapped together.
But the suppliers were at first too overwhelmed to install all the systems. Boeing says that they have since come up to speed, and that it should be able to wheel away the scaffolding soon.
The reverberating effects of Boeing’s outsourcing missteps have taken a huge toll. The Dreamliner — the first passenger plane to be made mainly with light plastic composites — is now more than two years late and still awaits its first flight tests.

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Boeing acknowledges that the problems have sorely tested the patience of suppliers and customers, and damaged its credibility. Already, 60 orders have been canceled, partly because of the delay.
The company’s chief, W. James McNerney Jr., concedes that Boeing lost control of the process by farming out more design and production work than ever and not keeping close tabs on suppliers. He says the company is

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