The Boeing 787 and how not to manufacture

Boeing has hopefully learned a hard lesson--

James Surowiecki: The Trouble with Boeing’s 787 : The New Yorker: "In a fascinating study of the process, two U.C.L.A. researchers, Christopher Tang and Joshua Zimmerman, show how challenging it was for Boeing to work with fifty different partners. The more complex a supply chain, the more chances there are for something to go wrong, and Boeing had far less control than it would have if more of the operation had been in-house. Delays became endemic, and, instead of costing less, the project went billions over budget. In 2011, Jim Albaugh, who took over the program in 2009, said, “We spent a lot more money in trying to recover than we ever would have spent if we’d tried to keep the key technologies closer to home.”. . . "

Tweet    Follow @johnmpoole