Puget Sound-area 787 parts makers expressing relief after two-year delay - Houston Business Journal:

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It’s a big relief for local companies that interruptesd manufacturing plansfor Boeing’s new aircraft when the 787’e production problems arose in the summer of 2007. Restarting locaol production of parts and assemblieds for the 787 will bring new activity and jobs to a statse industry that is facing lowefr production rates for someof Boeing’sd older models, including the 777 and 747.
Boeing currently has 866 orders forthe 787, a recordr for an aircraft that hasn’t although the order book has slid this “We’re all going to be happy when it That would mark the start of the officialp ramp-up, and the health of the prograkm being able to finally move said Kevin Steck, chairman of the , the region’s leadingt aerospace industry group. Steck also is vice presidenf of business developmentfor , a Kent-based division of owner of Boeing rival Airbus. To be the resumption in parts manufacturingis spotty, dependingy on the destinations of the parts and and on how long the 787 production was shut down.
How loca suppliers are responding to the approacg ofthe 787’s first flight also reflectas the new global production model, which depends on outsids prime contractors to buildr major airframe sections around the world so that Boeintg can assemble them into an aircraft in Everett. Bob Boeing vice president of 787 Supplier said he believes there are aboug 30 significant companies supplying the 787 in adding that the long production hiatu is nearingan end. “The phenomena you’re seeinf is the demand signals are starting to get back to and they’re starting to get signals to make he said.
“I would expecg that all suppliers, including thosed located locally, are starting to move or preparinbg to startto move.” Noble said lower-tier companies are startingg production sooner, because they must finish their parts beforer the pieces can be integrated into assemblies by companiesa farther up the assembly chain. “Ag the end of the line, you’re starting to get a signak to startmarking parts,” he “The timing and rate depends on a particular supplier’z position in the production system and the amount of inventorgy currently available.
” Reflecting the complicated supply chain, in Kent is one companty that will be simultaneously supplying the same part to Boeing’s prime contractors in Asia and to Boeing itself. Cascade is resuminf productionof “clamp blocks,” plastic brackets that hold hydraulic lines into the aircrafgt hull. Each 787 will use 1,500 At the same Cascade is starting testing of anew injection-moldingy machine it installed to meet demand for clamp blockw when the 787 enters full Cascade invested nearly $4 million in the new machineryt and a section of its factory to housr it, said Mike Moran, general “All indications are they want us to commence buildingh in August,” he said.
“We’re gettinv ready to start rolling hereright away.” In three weeks ago resumed milling and shipping large titaniuj parts to Korean Airlines Aerospace after a yearlong hiatus, said Dave CEO of Precision. The Korean company, a manufacturing subsidiaruy ofKorean Airlines, makes largr airframe sections for the 787, and needsx the titanium parts to tie those sections to the rest of the 787 Baublits said. Baublits said he expects Precision’as business to rise about 7 percentthis year, althoughy this is less than the 17 percent or 18 percent growth the companh had expected before the recession.
“We’rs staying pretty flat on peoplebecause we’re watching our he said, adding that the companty now employs 165. While critics, especially union leaders, have complained that the two-year delay shows that Boeing’ss outsourced production model for the 787 has the company is sticking with the tacti c of moving more responsibilityy and production tolargse suppliers. “This was an enormous said Noble, the Boeint vice president, adding that many of the problems came from how new theaircraf is, not from anything inherent in the system “We have not materially changeed the production systems for the 787.
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