Continued Delays May Bring Significant Change

Labor unions may be poised for a huge "I told you so" at Boeing's expense. BusinessWeek reports that after four major delays and two lost years, Boeing is rethinking its strategy of outsourcing so much the construction of its new 787 Dreamliner.

IAM members made limits on outsourcing a major bargaining issue in the settlement of their 58-day strike against the company last year. Boeing engineers say problems with partners have forced the company to repeatedly send staffers out to suppliers to resolve issues.

The first 787 flight was originally supposed to happen in August 2007. Boeing now hopes to make that happen by this June, with first deliveries now projected for Spring of 2010.

In planning for future variants of the 787, Boeing appears to be reducing reliance on outsourcing. That shift could upset the plans of companies worldwide, but Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Scott Carson was clear in comments to reporters in November.

"We fully recognize that we made some mistakes... on the 787-9, we are pulling more of the engineering back inside to try and alleviate some of the issues we've had," Carson said.

Engineering VP Mike Denton has also weighed in on the matter. "Our engineers and production workers are basically correcting the problems that should have never come to us in the first place," he said. "We will probably do more of the design and even some of the major production for the next new airplanes ourselves as opposed to having it all out with the partners."

Boeing hasn't publicly confirmed a significant shift with its plans... but with customers increasingly skeptical about Boeing's delivery timeframes for the oft-delayed Dreamliner, it may only be a matter of time.

FMI: www.boeing.com