Boeing buys another Dreamliner supplier site
Aerospace giant makes another move to tighten up its supply chain
Dave Hannon -- Purchasing, 7/7/2009 9:13:09 AM
After announcing yet another supplier-related delay to its Dreamliner project recently, aerospace giant Boeing has decided it would be easier to manage the trouble spots if it owned them. So Boeing today officially announced it would pay roughly $580 million to acquire the South Carolina plant (left) owned by Vought Aircraft Industries which produces part of the aft fuselage for Boeing's 787 Dreamliner airplane.
According to a statement from Boeing, when the acquisition closes, Boeing will assume operation of the North Charleston, S.C. site, and "the parties will resolve all matters related to Vought's prior work on the 787 program." Boeing will release Vought from repaying the advances Boeing provided and the two companies have entered into agreements for more work.
Late last month Boeing announced it would have to delay the
Dreamliner's first flight yet again because due to "a need to reinforce an area
within the side-of-body section of the aircraft." Since announcing the delay,
rumors about Boeing's buying the Vought plant have been rampant. In fact, ther
e
is some speculation that Boeing may use the South Carolina site to establish a
second assembly plant to run in addition to its Washington state one, in an
effort to speed production of the Dreamliner.
"The idea of setting up a second assembly line certainly makes sense from Boeing's point of view," said Ray Jaworowski, senior aerospace analyst for Forecast International Inc. in Newtown, Conn. in an interview with the Puget Sound Business Journal. "We've been hearing increasing reports, that a number of customers are bristling, and threatened to go over to Airbus and the A350."
But it's not the first time Boeing has brought a trouble spot into the fold. Boeing bought a separate Vought site in South Carolina last year.
To read a 2007 report on the Boeing Dreamliner project, go here.
Now Playing:
Right award, wrong department
09/09/2007
