Boeing still struggling with 787

As Boeing's 787 Dreamliner program creeps toward first delivery this year, managers are intensifying efforts to smooth production. But people working on the airplanes and others familiar with the state of the program say progress is painfully slow.

While Boeing may meet its deadline to deliver the first 787 to All Nippon Airways of Japan before Sept. 30, the production pace projected for 2011 appears out of reach.

Boeing executives told Wall Street analysts in January the company would deliver somewhere between a dozen and 20 Dreamliners this year.

"It isn't going to happen," said one mechanic working on the airplanes. "There are too many jobs to be done."

One job taking weeks per airplane is the painstaking removal of sealant from the interior of fuel tanks in the wings, then resealing them.

And because the computerized system that provides mechanics with data on parts isn't operating well, even simpler modifications take much longer than they should.

Boeing has leased extra space so it can work on multiple airplanes at the same time.

Managers last week held all-hands meetings aimed at galvanizing the work force, and formed employee committees to identify and solve the major holdups.

Tough questions ahead

On Wednesday, when Boeing releases its quarterly earnings results, executives no doubt will be questioned about the state of the 787 program.

Six Dreamliners are flying flight tests, while 29 more have rolled off the assembly line and are parked on the Everett flight line or at adjacent Paine Field.

Those planes await thousands of incomplete assembly jobs and modifications necessary because of design changes since they were built.

Boeing spokeswoman Lori Gunter conceded Monday that the rework is a difficult challenge, and she acknowledged the two specific problems raised by 787 insiders: the wing sealing and the computer data glitches.

Still, she insisted, there is a "very specific airplane by airplane plan" for completing the rework.

"Nothing we've seen ... is raising red flags for us," she said.

In an effort to come to grips with the extensive rework, Boeing is modifying one Dreamliner in Texas, two more inside the main Everett assembly plant, and five airplanes inside a large hangar at the south end of Paine Field leased from maintenance and repair company Aviation Technical Services (ATS).

Plenty of headaches

Yet, those close to the program say production headaches continue.

"The assembly process is still a mess," an engineer said.

"They are building airplanes in the final-assembly process that then have to be rebuilt in the pickup process, which is many times longer."

Parts that don't fit, including doors and control surfaces on the wings, still are arriving in Everett.

"The wings on the 787s aren't even close to being ready," the engineer said.

The employees spoke on condition of anonymity because Boeing doesn't allow them to talk about their work.

The latest airplanes rolled out to the flight line from the factory with about 1,600 jobs incomplete.

It has been taking on average about a month to complete 1,000 of these catch-up jobs, the 787 mechanic said.

"They are just digging the hole deeper every time they send one out with that many jobs on it," he said.

Gunter said she didn't have the information to comment on those numbers.

Sorting it all out is made much more difficult because of the balky computerized system that manages all the data about specific parts. Mechanics are spending hours trying to call up parts information and drawings before performing any rework or modification.

And individual jets have been reworked so often that engineers have a hard time just figuring out what is the particular configuration of parts and assemblies on a particular plane.

"Productivity has crashed," said another employee with knowledge of how the computer system is failing.

"A worker spends four hours a day on the computer just trying to pull up his work."

Boeing's Gunter said the company is working to improve the digital tools, which she admitted "could work better."

But she said that, even without that, productivity has been improving. "Our mechanics are doing a great job," she said.

Among the major rework that must be done on every jet built so far is the laborious resealing of the wings.

That's currently being done on two jets destined for Royal Air Maroc of Morocco, inside an empty bay of the main assembly plant.

As the engineer put it, the planes are "essentially getting gutted."

The wing seals are important not only to avoid fuel leaks but also to coat metal fasteners so as to prevent sparks inside the fuel tank during a lightning strike.

Gunter said Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), which builds the wings in Japan, is not entirely at fault.

"The sealing that was done did not meet our expectations," Gunter said. "We worked together with MHI to identify the need for resealing."

At the root of the issue, she said, are "elements of both workmanship and design."

Nothing new

She added that this is "not a new discovery" and already was factored into the last schedule revision in December, which requires the first delivery by the end of September.

But first delivery may not matter as much as the smoothing of the production system, said the employee who spoke about the computerized data problems.

"They'll make some deliveries," that person said, "But does the assembly line work? Almost no one thinks so."

Among several people who work on or with the program, the most optimistic projection was that Boeing might deliver 10 Dreamliners to customers by year end.

Others predicted the number would be much smaller.

Inside the ATS hangar, Dreamliners Nos. 8 and 9 are being prepared to join the fleet of flight-test planes to speed up the certification process.

These jets will fly long flights to try to gain a certification known as ETOPS — Extended-range Twin-engine Operations — which an airplane needs to fly more than an hour from the nearest airport.

One Dreamliner, No. 23, flew to San Antonio last month.

That plane is having its wing tanks sealed there and also is being rewired. When it's done, it will fly back to Everett to have an interior installed.

More employees

Boeing has been hiring mechanics steadily to beef up its work force and by the summer plans to have 1,200 people working at the ATS hangar, which the work force has dubbed "Factory South."

"Boeing is throwing money and bodies at the problem," the mechanic said.

Dominic Gates: 206-464-2963

or dgates@seattletimes.com