Australia to blame for Dreamliners delay?

[markis10]

Interesting article covering issues I was not aware of, while I dont think its easy to attribute issues to one plant, its a poor comment on the state of manufacturing in high tech locally if the article has some truth to it!

THE usually bustling industrial hub of Fishermans Bend in Melbourne, home to Holden's headquarters and a Kraft factory where Vegemite has been made from brewers' yeast extract for 85 years, is nearly a picture of calm on a Saturday afternoon.
That is, apart from the nearby Boeing compound where dozens of cars are parked outside. Production is in full swing seven days a week at the sprawling facility, where hundreds are working away in a quiet pocket of Australian manufacturing to deliver an aviation game-changer to the world.
As the builder of composite wing flaps for Boeing's new Dreamliner 787 aircraft, workers at the plant are in a race against the clock to raise
their production rate or risk wearing the blame for more delays to the introduction of the state-of-the-art aircraft.

Read more: Boeing's local dreams on the line ​

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[Justchecking]

Well Boeing have the choice to manufacture that component in-house anytime they like. The 787s delays are largely due to them being a prototype aircraft, with significantly different base materials than other aircraft as well as a new design to the company. Who would have thought a prototype would be subject to delays?....

 

[ric_melb]

It is an interesting article. And it wanders a bit. But I don't necessarily think it proves that Australian manufacturing is unproductive.
As I am seeing it some of the issues stem from Boeing reducing the workforce, and then scrambling to re employ and train people, plus a need to increase investment in the plant, for the tasks at hand.

 

[markis10]

Well Boeing have the choice to manufacture that component in-house anytime they like

What makes you say that, are you across the intricacies of composite construction, I think you will find they dont have the capability to do this inhouse per se? AFAIK the only other place in the world with such capability is GKN in Germany.Unlike the ADF contracts, there is no local manufacturing or licensed production clauses to adhere to, so the $4B worth of business awarded to HdH (formerly GAF) is significant, HdH also did the C130 composite flaps!

For a country that produced the first composite commercial aircraft so many years ago (it was my former avatar), they certainly seem to have lost the knowledge base when it comes to production.

 

[docjames]

Fisherman's Bend have the same ramp-up issues as all the other suppliers. I think too much is being read between the lines (by the journalist) here.

 

[UP4014]

A lazy way for a jurno to get an Australian connection happening I would think.

They are producing 5 to 6 sets of flaps per week but 'may' need 10. Not time to panic just yet.

 

[markis10]

I dont think the 777 production will ever get close to 5-6 a week so I wonder what the real issue is?

 

[oz_mark]

The article does not seem to present any evidence that the plant in question has been responsible for any delays to this point in time. They do have some hard yards in front of them with regard to getting production rates up to the required 10 sets a month.

 

[drron]

The real issue is probably the high Aussie dollar.Not sure when the decision was made to use this plant but the Aussie would have been considerably lower hence now a cost blow out.

 

[Justchecking]

What makes you say that, are you across the intricacies of composite construction, I think you will find they dont have the capability to do this inhouse per se? AFAIK the only other place in the world with such capability is GKN in Germany.Unlike the ADF contracts, there is no local manufacturing or licensed production clauses to adhere to, so the $4B worth of business awarded to HdH (formerly GAF) is significant, HdH also did the C130 composite flaps!

For a country that produced the first composite commercial aircraft so many years ago (it was my former avatar), they certainly seem to have lost the knowledge base when it comes to production.

What makes me say that is that any business has the decision capacity to bring some element of the production in-house. I didnt say they had the in-house talent or facilities ready to go, merely that they could ave decided to create those facilities and hire the required talent at any stage in the production process. The fact they decided not to, (for whatever reasons) doesn't make their production delays largely due to the Australian plant. It's a bit saying QFs fleet issues are due solely to the delay of the 787, when in fact they are due to QFs management decision not to put in an alternate fleet plan should the 787 delivery go awry.



Sure no-one would have foreseen an almost 4 year delay on delivery, but surely mgmt could have forseen some delay or at least started evasive action once it was apparent that their original strategy was going pear-shaped.

And your final sentence is probably the real reason for the massive delays.

As others have said, this article is a grasping at straws effort to meet some journo's quota for the month.

 

[codash1099]

The real issue is probably the high Aussie dollar.Not sure when the decision was made to use this plant but the Aussie would have been considerably lower hence now a cost blow out.

Unless the contract is in US dollars, in which case, and without an adjustment clause, HdH would be losing significantly.

 

[drron]

Unless the contract is in US dollars, in which case, and without an adjustment clause, HdH would be losing significantly.

Hence why they would not want to crank up production.Still the most likely cause whichever currency the contract was written in-one side stands to lose heavily.

 

[straitman]

What makes me say that is that any business has the decision capacity to bring some element of the production in-house. I didnt say they had the in-house talent or facilities ready to go, merely that they could ave decided to create those facilities and hire the required talent at any stage in the production process. The fact they decided not to, (for whatever reasons) doesn't make their production delays largely due to the Australian plant. It's a bit saying QFs fleet issues are due solely to the delay of the 787, when in fact they are due to QFs management decision not to put in an alternate fleet plan should the 787 delivery go awry.

If you go back and research how Boeing do business you will find that the processes of outsourcing production is very similar, or the same, as what they have been doing for many years.

Therefore a reasonable conclusion to draw is they they know the risks and are willing to accept them.