Boeing is ending production of the 787 Dreamliner in Everett, Washington, in March. That was four months ahead of schedule. February will see the last Dreamliner made by Everett. After that, production of the Dreamliner will move to North Charleston, South Carolina.
Dominic Gates, writing for The Seattle Times, broke the news and quoted a Boeing internal memo from Lane Ballard, general manager of the 787 program and head of the North Charleston plant.
“The consolidation of production and delivery in South Carolina … will take place in March 2021,” said Mr. Ballard. The Boeing executive also confirmed that Dreamliner production would drop to five a month to coincide with the change. Boeing will continue to build its 747, 777 and 767 aircraft at Everett.
An early mid-2021 date for March
Just three months ago, Boeing confirmed that it would end production of the Dreamliner at Everett. However, at the time, Boeing said the move would not take place until mid-2021. About 1000 people work on the Dreamliner in Everett. Fortunately, your continued employment with Boeing seems guaranteed for now. Most will likely remain in the books. Although Boeing does not plan to offer them work in North Charleston, quality control work on the 787s will continue in Everett after March.
Boeing calls the quality control work “junction verification” – a reference to the well-publicized problems that Boeing had with fuselage joints in Dreamliners. There is an accumulation of completed Dreamliners that need “join check”. Apparently, this will take some time.
“Planes that are stored until delivery, and planes currently in our production system, will go through this junction verification process,” Ballard wrote. Earlier this month, it was reported that Boeing had approximately 60 Dreamliners completed and in storage, awaiting inspections and delivery to customers.
“Everett-mounted stored planes will go to Everett for joint inspection and delivery, and South Carolina-mounted stored planes will go to South Carolina for joint inspection and delivery.”
The decision will have all 787 manufacturing done in North Charleston
So far, Boeing has been assembling its 787 Dreamliners in Everett, North Charleston, Kansas and Japan. With the assembly taking place only in North Charleston and the three external stations used for quality control purposes, that will now change. By bringing production of the Dreamliner back to a location, Boeing can overcome many of the production problems that haunt the manufacture of the aircraft.
Boeing’s North Charleston plant is not unionized. It operates with lower operating and labor costs than at Everett. Ballard did not say why Boeing was planning the move to North Charleston, but that would save the money maker’s cashless money in the long run.
The chance to draw a line in a problematic production program
After a difficult year, Boeing is seeing some rays of light. The 737 MAX saga was interrupted with the Federal Aviation Administration releasing the aircraft to fly again in the United States. As a result, several airlines are planning to resume the MAX flight, and two significant MAX orders were placed in December.
Although the Dreamliner never made headlines as much as the MAX, quality problems have caused significant ongoing problems and seen aircraft landed. The move to consolidate the North Charleston assembly can be seen as an attempt to set a limit to Dreamliner problems and start from scratch. It will certainly be easier to keep an eye on quality with aircraft leaving a factory.