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Economic developers rally around training
By Dan McCue
Staff Writer
The economic development community is standing by the quality of training for workers at the Vought Aircraft Industries and Global Aeronautica plants received from the state’s technical college system.
This pronouncement came after Boeing officials announced on Oct. 10 that a parts snafu and other critical problems throughout its supply chain would delay initial deliveries of the 787 Dreamliner by about six months.
“My understanding from the Vought and Global Aeronautica leadership is that they’ve been pleased with our state’s training assistance, and are even considering it as a model for some of their other locations,” said David Ginn, president and CEO of the Charleston Regional Development Alliance.
Kara Borie, spokeswoman for the S.C. Department of Commerce, meanwhile described the technical college system’s readySC training program as one of the state’s greatest assets.
“It continues to be a powerful tool as we work to recruit industry to the state and grow existing businesses,” she said.
Deliveries of the Dreamliner, the first commercial aircraft made almost entirely of carbon fiber-based composite materials, are now slated to begin in late November or December 2008. Previously, they had been scheduled to begin next spring.
It remains to be seen what kind of hit the aerospace giant will take in contractual penalties stemming from the delay, which will affect about 15 of the 50 airlines who have committed to purchasing the plane.
“We are disappointed over the schedule changes that we are announcing,” said Jim McNerney, Boeing’s chairman, president and chief executive officer, during a two-hour conference call with reporters and financial analysts.
“Notwithstanding the challenges that we are experiencing in bringing forward this game-changing product, we remain confident in the design of the 787, and in the fundamental innovation and technologies that underpin it.”
In a departure from its historic production process, Boeing opted to rely more heavily on major suppliers for the 787 project. In return for taking on a share of the development costs of the aircraft, several aerospace companies around the world were tapped to serve as subcontractors in the creation of a plane that Boeing says will be lighter, faster and more fuel-efficient than any commercial aircraft ever built before.
Workers at the co-located Vought Aircraft Industries and Global Aeronautica plants in North Charleston are building the two aft sections of the Dreamliner. A plant in Japan is making the 787’s wings; a facility in Italy, its horizontal tail section and a factory in Wichita, Kan., the forward fuselage and crew section.
The parts are then flown to Boeing’s manufacturing facility in Everett, Wash. for final assembly.
Of the sections made in North Charleston, aft fuselage section 47 measures 19 feet in diameter and 23 feet in length. It is the last passenger section of the 787. Section 48, measuring 14 feet in diameter and 15 feet in length, includes the pressure bulkhead and is the first cargo hold section of the aircraft.
About 80% of the material used in the sections manufactured here is composite, while the remaining 20% is mostly aluminum.
Boeing officials said despite the delay in delivery, the production schedules for suppliers like Vought and Global Aeronautica will not change. The officials stood by the production process, maintaining that once problems within the supply chain are rectified, the company will be able to completely assemble a Dreamliner in as little as three days.
Scott Carson, president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said problems in the production process and supply chain began to manifest themselves as work began in earnest on Dreamliner 1 and an earlier “static” version of the aircraft.
As a result of an unforeseen shortage of fasteners, clips and brackets, workers on the aircraft in Everett and other remote locations began assembling sections out of sequence, a move that kept the production process moving forward, but complicated matters later in the assembly process.
“Would we have handled this process a little differently in 20/20 hindsight? Yes,” Carson admitted. “But with the 787, you’re talking about the start of a whole new production process that’s not been done before.
“The bottom line is we could have done things better.” he said.
The first flight, of the Dreamliner is now anticipated around the end of first quarter 2008.
There are six preliminary Dreamliners in some stage of completion at Boeing’s Everett, Wash., assembly facility.
In order to resolve some of the production problems, Boeing sent personnel to the facilities of all of its supply line partners, including those in North Charleston, Carson said.
While he didn’t say exactly how many Boeing workers are now in North Charleston, he said they’ve been there for over a month, and are primarily charged with giving the production process time to mature.
“If there’s a lesson learned from this experience, it’s that we should have started earlier and had more training and gotten the workers out there more familiar with our processes. There is no fundamental flaw in Charleston,” Carson said.
Lynne Warne, a Vought spokeswoman, said Boeing’s increased presence in North Charleston is “not unusual or unexpected given the complexity of the new advanced composites program.”
Warne, who is based in Nashville, said to the best of her knowledge no employee meetings were held in North Charleston to address Boeing’s announcement.
“The entire South Carolina campus is working closely with Boeing to support the 787 program and its requirements,” she said.
Despite assertions from some financial analysts that the inexperienced work force in Charleston may have added to Boeing’s headaches, officials at Trident Technical College, which trained the workers, stood by their program.
In a written statement, Russell Darnall, vice president of the S.C. Technical College System’s Economic Development Division and director of readySC, said “ReadySC, a program of the Center for Accelerated Technology Training, has designed and delivered training to employees of both Global Aeronautica and Vought in support of the Boeing Dreamliner project.
“This training team, located at Trident Technical College, continues to respond to the growing needs of the project. Feedback from both Vought and Global Aeronautica indicates that we continue to meet and exceed all training specifications and requirements.”
Borie said South Carolina’s worker training program continues to receive national recognition for its ability to deliver a skilled work force.
“To see a plant of this size and a completely new work force trained to produce a revolutionary new product in a short amount of time is a remarkable feat,” she said.
“Furthermore, it’s important to note that the program is now training workers FAA certified, which serves to be a strong asset to the company and further testament to the success of the program.”
Boeing’s announcement shocked the stock market, but if its announcement was something of a broadside to Wall Street, there had been earlier signs of growing pains for the 787 project.
Last January, for instance, the 747 Dreamlifter, a specially designed aircraft used to ferry Dreamliner parts to and from facilities all over the world, made a special flight into Charleston to deliver missing clamps and fasteners to the Vought facility.
Then, on July 8, Boeing debuted a partially unfinished Dreamliner 1, describing it as the first 787 to roll off the assembly line.
Although 15,000 were invited to view the aircraft’s rollout in person, and workers from around the world, including those at the North Charleston facilities, participated in the event via remote transmission over Boeing’s Web site, the aircraft was in fact held together by thousands of temporary fasteners and had to be almost completely disassembled afterward.
Suppliers had yet to install wiring and other critical components, Boeing officials admitted.
Finally, on Sept. 5, Boeing pushed back the first test flight to mid-November or mid-December due to complications with final assembly and finalizing flight-control software. That last bump in the road proved the most critical, as it eliminated what was left of the margin to accommodate unexpected issues in the Dreamliner production schedule.
“This delay will give us much more time in the lab to work on the technology and to give it time to mature,” he said.
Dan McCue is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail him at dmccue@setcommedia.com.
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