In this the summer of flight delays and cancellations, it is perhaps only
fitting that Boeing Co.
announced
Wednesday test flights for its 787 Dreamliner will be pushed back as much as
three months while it irons out continued manufacturing wrinkles relating to
the much ballyhooed jet.
At stake in this case, however, is much more than just a plane full of
disgruntled customers. Though it may be overstating to say that Boeing, with
$64 billion in sales, has bet the company on the Dreamliner’s success, the
plane is without doubt pivotal to the Chicago-based aerospace giant's future
as a commercial aircraft maker. After all, the 787 is the first aircraft to
extensively use lower-weight composite materials rather than aluminum, and the
projected fuel savings have been popular with airlines who have already
ordered more than 650 planes.
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Boeing on Wednesday said it would begin test flights in mid-November, back
from the original target of late summer, blaming supply chain challenges and
flight software refinements. The company said that it does not expect the
delay to impact its bottom line, adding that it still expects to deliver the
first Dreamliner on schedule next May.
Those assurances were enough to keep Boeing shares flat on the day, but the
company is walking a narrowing tightrope. Boeing wisely built some slack into
its timeline but now will burn through much of that extra time with this
delay. And the company, which is using the Dreamliner to revolutionize its
manufacturing process by outsourcing most of the production to vendors and
simply assembling the planes in house, has already run into numerous hiccups
trying to coordinate a supply chain that spans the globe from Japan to Europe.
Ironically, Boeing could have bigger problems down the line should it’s
outsourced manufacturing strategy prove as efficient as it hopes. As DealScape
noted
in July, Boeing could be opening itself up to countless new competitors who
lack the manufacturing scale once needed to produce commercial aircraft, but
are armed with smart engineers and designers and a willingness to outsource
assembly. —Lou Whiteman
See
Associated Press story on Boeing's announcement
See
Dealscape post on Boeing's long-term worries
Tags: Airlines, Boeing, Aerospace
