In just a few months, the Boeing Co. plant in North Charleston will be the only one assembling 787 Dreamliner jets.
Boeing will begin the previously announced consolidation of the 787 program in March, said Boeing spokeswoman in South Carolina, Libba Holland.
That date is accelerated from the “mid-2021” estimate that Boeing gave when it made the decision to officially consolidate in the fall.
That means Boeing’s Dreamliner production line in Everett, Wash. There are only a few months before the shift. But due to ongoing problems with a flaw found in some 787s, work related to the widebody program will continue on the West Coast, even after the site has stopped assembling the aircraft.
The jets completed in the Puget Sound region will continue to be evaluated for skin leveling problems at the junctions of the fuselage sections, a problem that Boeing said last week was more widespread than initially thought.
“We stay committed to providing only safe, high-quality aircraft, and have strengthened our quality assurance program over the past 12 months, “the company said in a statement.”s we continue to conduct comprehensive inspections on undelivered 787s to ensure that each one meets our highest standards before delivery, we are taking advantage our South Carolina and Everett facilities to complete inspections, and any rework, as necessary.”
About 900 of Boeing’s Everett employees work on the 787 program, and the company has yet to say what is happening with those positions.
When the North Charleston plant becomes the sole final assembly site for the 787 early next year, it will be producing fewer jets per month than when it was sharing work with Everett.
Boeing has reduced the monthly fee for the widebody program several times this year, citing the paralyzing effect of the pandemic on demand for new planes. More recently, the rate has been reduced from six of the jets per month to five.
The aircraft maker said it was “preparing for an efficient transition” at the rate of five a month, while “maintaining the supply chain and production stability”.
At the moment, with Boeing’s transition to the lowest rate, it will build less than 10 jets per month, said Chief Financial Officer Greg Smith during a Credit Suisse virtual conference in early December.
Smith also talked about the “large number of 787 aircraft in stock”, the result of low delivery numbers that were affected by the pandemic, as well as extra safety inspections and rework on the affected planes. The reviews are taking longer than expected, Smith had said.
The recent expansion of inspections offers some explanations as to why. All junctions in the fuselage sections of the jet are now being checked to see if they meet “specified skin leveling tolerances,” said Boeing, when initially only the rear fuselage made in North Charleston was being examined for the error.
In addition to continuing to check for jet flaws, Everett will also do the necessary rework until all 787s completed at the site have been delivered to customers.
From then on, however, all deliveries of the Dreamliner will come from the Boeing campus near Charleston International Airport.
The possibility of closing one of its two final 787 assembly sites was first raised in late July, when CEO Dave Calhoun said during the second quarter earnings conference call that they were considering consolidation options.
Industry watchers and aerospace experts quickly pointed to South Carolina as the likely choice. In addition to being the only site for the two who build the 787-10 model, the North Charleston campus also manufactures parts of the fuselage that need to be moved to an adjacent building or, if the jet is assembled in Everett, loaded on a huge jet plane. modified cargo called Dreamlifter and flew to the opposite coast.
In addition to logistical considerations, analysts point to the fact that South Carolina’s workforce is not represented by unions, unlike Washington state workers.
When Boeing made the move official in October, Stan Deal, president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said it would make them “more competitive and efficient” and better able to “face these challenging times and win new business”.
South Carolina aerospace politicians and advocates praised his decision, and some talked about the possibility of new, well-paid jobs coming to the state. But job growth is not a by-product of consolidation that will be seen soon. The workforce cuts, including involuntary acquisitions and layoffs, included Boeing South Carolina, and the lower production rate means there will be a decrease in the work in progress.
But Boeing expects that to change.
In July, when the company was still evaluating its options, Calhoun said it would only consolidate if the chosen location could support a double-digit rate, once demand for the widebody program recovered.
Based on Calhoun’s own estimates, this will take some time. He predicted that it will take about three years for air travel to return to pre-pandemic levels. The success of the 787, which is preferred for international routes, will depend on the recovery of international travel, which will take more time to return than traffic on domestic routes.