Charleston Assembly Line Will Be Able To Work Independently

Boeing will contract with suppliers outside the Puget Sound area to produce all 787 parts, so that its second Dreamliner production line in Charleston, S.C. can operate independently, the company announced Monday.

Labor issues are a factor in the decision, according to Boeing spokesman Jim Proulx.  He told The Seattle Times that by adding a second supplier for every part, Boeing could continue to build the Dreamliner even if Washington-area machinists went on strike. "Repeated labor disruptions have affected our performance in our customers' eyes," Proulx told the paper. "We have to show our customers we can be a reliable supplier to them." The South Carolina production line "has to be able to go on regardless of what's happening over here," he added.

Boeing has not determined how much of the duplicate work would be done by company employees, and how much will be done by outside contractors. Proulx said. He added that the second set of suppliers will "accommodate the ramp-up" that will be necessary when Boeing hopes to be rolling out 10 Dreamliners a month, the rate expected by the end of 2013.

Ray Connor, vice president and general manager of supply-chain management and operations, sent a message Monday to all Boeing Commercial Airplanes managers informing them of the dual-sourcing decision. "We are not moving any work that Boeing employees are currently performing — we are just adding additional sources," he said.

But Ray Goforth, the executive director of the Society for Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), which is the white-collar union at Boeing, told the Seattle Times the decision means Boeing could be considering getting out of the manufacturing business in the Pacific Northwest. "Why would you keep duplication of industrial capacity?" he said. "It looks like they could be getting out of the business of manufacturing those parts here at some point."

FMI: www.boeing.com