Boeing's Eggs 87

It looks like Boeing has 86ed the on time departure of its new luxury liner the 787. This, just months after laughing in the face of rival AirBus because of its planned delays on delivering it new luxury liner the A380. While Boeing has done a great job outsourcing the production of the plane’s parts, the problem is that its supply chain is was not equipped to handle the numerous moving pieces in a way that would bring them all together in an efficient manner.

Boeing manufactures the 787's tail fin at its plant in Frederickson, Washington, the ailerons and flaps at Boeing Australia, and fairings at Boeing Canada Technology. For its entire history, Boeing has guarded its techniques for designing and mass producing commercial jetliner wings. For economic reasons, the wings are manufactured by Japanese companies in Nagoya, e.g. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries; the horizontal stabilizers are manufactured by Alenia Aeronautica in Italy; and the fuselage sections by Vought in Charleston, South Carolina (USA), Alenia in Italy, Kawasaki Heavy Industries in Japan and Spirit AeroSystems, in Wichita, Kansas (USA). The passenger doors are made by Latecoere (France) and the cargo doors, access doors and crew escape door are made by Saab (Sweden). Japanese industrial participation is very important to the project, with 35% work share, with many of the subcontractors supported and funded by the Japanese government.[49] On April 26, 2006, Japanese manufacturer Toray Industries and Boeing announced a production agreement involving $6 billion worth of carbon fiber. The deal is an extension of a contract signed in 2004 between the two companies and eases some concerns that Boeing might have difficulty maintaining its production goals for the 787.
From France, Messier-Dowty builds the landing gear and Thales supplies the integrated standby flight display and electrical power conversion system.
Honeywell and Rockwell-Collins provide flight control, guidance and other avionics systems, including standard dual head up guidance systems. Future integration of forward-looking infrared is being considered by Flight Dynamics allowing improved visibility using thermal sensing as part of the HUD system, allowing pilots to "see" through the clouds.
Connecticut (USA)-based Hamilton Sundstrand provides power distribution and management systems for the aircraft, including manufacture and production of Generator Control Units (GCUs) as well as integration of power transfer systems that can move power from the Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) and the main engines to the necessary parts and machinery of the aircraft. Cold weather test of the APU took place in Alaska.

The final assembly consists of attaching fully completed subassemblies, instead of building the complete aircraft from the ground up. This is a technique that Boeing has previously used on the 737 program, which involves shipping fuselage barrel sections by rail from Spirit's Wichita, Kansas facility to Boeing's narrowbody final assembly plant in Renton, Washington. After stiff competition, Boeing announced on December 16, 2003 that assembly would take place in Everett, Washington, employing 800 to 1,200 people. The 787 production line had been expected to finish assembly on an aircraft in as little as three days, compared with 11 days for the 737; however it looks like it will take more 35 days.

Expect the stock price to experience some losses, because there is no clear end in sight. But things should rebound once Boeing figures out how to make this plane correctly. We therefore remain neutral on Boeing. If you have some stock, do not rush to sell it, but now is not a good time to buy... the company is currently experiencing some turbulence, so all owners should remain seated with their seat belts securely fastened.