PARIS — Boeing’s vice president of airplane programs, Pat Shanahan, suggested that the American airframer is nearing a decision on a second 787 production line and labor stability is a key factor in determining its location.
Shanahan called his company’s decision on a second line “more mature and advanced than it was a year ago,” emphasizing that Boeing is “not going to ponder [a decision on a second line] a long time.”
Boeing has long entertained the idea of a second 787 production line to raise production rates beyond 10 per month to meet customer demand and make up for 22 months worth of program delays.
“The sooner you make a decision, the better. We won’t be pressed into making a decision. [It will be] very measured. It won’t be emotionally based,” said Shanahan.
Though, despite some deferrals from early 787 customers, Shanahan says Boeing is still committed to ramp up 787 production to 10 aircraft per month by 2012.
“The demand is there. Obviously there are factors around things outside the demand like financing issues, but that’s so far out there,” he added.
Boeing has accumulated 865 order from 56 customers for the 787.
Shanahan added that Boeing is not even discussing the possibility of not meeting the 787 demand forecast.
“Two and a half years isn’t that far away, it’s just a lot of work and I think second guessing that at this point, would not serve any value now.”
Shanahan declined to specify what locations were on the “short list” for a second 787 production line, but said there are “lots of geographical options…the real options are around ‘how do you secure assurance of delivery?’ And I think that’s been a discussion topic around some of the disruption we’ve realized…at Boeing.”
The disruption Shanahan referenced was the 57-day machinist strike that halted jetliner production at Boeing’s commercial manufacturing facilities during September and October of 2008.
Likely candidates for a second 787 production line include Everett, Washington, current site of final assembly, San Antonio, Texas and Charleston, South Carolina. Charleston is currently home to center fuselage integration by Global Aeronautica, as well as aft fuselage fabrication by Vought. San Antonio will host refurbishment and change incorporation operations for the six flight test aircraft and early production 787s.
“There are opportunities that we need to assess and I’ve worked there for 24 years, I like the people in Seattle, I grew up in Seattle, It’s a great community, but when you have the customer telling you you’re making it really hard to choose your product because when we buy it you can’t give it to us,” said Shanahan.
Sir Richard Branson, whose Virgin Atlantic Airways has 15 787-9 aircraft on order, discussed the disruption in February at the time of delivery of the first 777 for V Australia:
“If people in Seattle build our planes and deliver them on time and, to be frank, don’t go on strike, then we’ll continue to work with Boeing. If we have our airline completely messed up, with tremendous damage done to our own work force, then we’ll go to Embraer or Airbus.”
“We have a have a hard time explaining it to our shareholders how we’re making some of these decisions,” Shanahan added. “I think this is more the corporate responsibility piece is to evaluate all scenarios. I won’t speak to specifics of those scenarios, but [it is] something we’re evaluating, considering our options quite seriously and make a determination on a broad variety of criteria.”
Shanahan cited “functional logistics” and access to “skilled labor…and high tech skills” as key criteria in any decision.
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This post originally appeared at Flightglobal.com from 2007 to 2012.