787 Dreamliner teaches Boeing costly lesson on outsourcing

[reductionist]

Boeing 787: 787 Dreamliner teaches Boeing costly lesson on outsourcing - latimes.com

The airliner is billions of dollars over budget and about three years late. Much of the blame belongs to the company's farming out work to suppliers around the nation and in foreign countries.

 

[simongr]

Argh - I think this quote tells the real story here:

Rather than follow its old model of providing parts subcontractors with detailed blueprints created at home, Boeing gave suppliers less detailed specifications and required them to create their own blueprints.

Outsourcing is not in and of itself the problem - it is the way you manage the outsourcers. Many companies have good contract management processes and performance management processes for their outsource providers and this has a benefit for the company (reduced costs) and the customer (reduced prices due to reduced cost).

Boeing is responsible for the delays not the fact that they outsourced.

 

[casanovawa]

Incredible what clowns can do when let run amok, even with long establish organisations that have survived many ups and downs...