Airline surveys point to ongoing production problems at Boeing’s SC plant
Some of the airlines buying 787 Dreamliners built at Boeing Co.’s North Charleston campus are complaining about “unacceptable” production mistakes and poor quality, and analysts say the criticism points to issues deep within the aerospace giant’s culture.
While workers at the Dreamliner factory have previously reported quality lapses, this is the first time such private criticism from Boeing’s customers has been made public.
“Boeing Commercial Airplanes clearly has a systemic problem in designing, producing and delivering airplanes,” said Scott Hamilton, an aerospace analyst and editor of Leeham News and Analysis.
The airline complaints are included as part of internal surveys Boeing asks carriers to complete when a plane is delivered. Not all airlines participate and results sometimes can be skewed by such things as supplier issues that are out of Boeing’s control.
For example, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines called the factory’s quality control “way below acceptable standards” for a 787-10 delivered at North Charleston in June. The plane included a special livery to celebrate the carrier’s 100th anniversary.
KLM noted several issues, including a loose seat, missing or wrongly installed cotter pins, nuts not fully tightened, an unsecured fuel line clamp and several unspecified missing parts.
“Who looks at quality in this facility,” KLM asked, adding the airline “is worried for the next deliveries.”
“There are serious doubts about quality and Boeing’s ability to deliver on time,” the carrier stated.
KLM, in its review, said it also observed an overworked Boeing staff that’s trying to keep up with a production schedule that calls for 14 Dreamliners to be built every month, split between the aerospace firm’s North Charleston and Everett, Wash., facilities.
“A lot of Boeing personnel, factory and management, works way too much overtime,” the carrier stated. “In this customer’s opinion this reflects in quality and the inability to make schedule.”
KLM also said too much work was left for the flight line to complete because the plane wasn’t finished when it left final assembly.
“There must have been at least a dozen changes since (the) aircraft was outside,” the airline said. “There seems always to be a reason why schedules are not being met.”
Ik heb de een aantal quotes uit het artikel gehaald, maar het is interessant genoeg om helemaal door te lezen.
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