First South Carolina Airliner Rolls Out

[bdk]

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2012/04/27/2499294/boeings-south-carolina-facility.html

I wonder what the union in Seattle thinks of this?

I wonder what The Inspector thinks of this?

[The Inspector]

S outh
C arolina
A irplane
B uilders

[Tombstoner139]

At least the jobs are in the US. In order to gain access to Chinese markets Boeing released the tech for making wing and tail sections of some modern designs.

[bdk]

S outh
C arolina
A irplane
B uilders

You say that like it is a bad thing...

[The Inspector]

It's a heritage thing and yet another example of the destructive breath holding and eye gouging on both sides of the issue that's led to some very contentious, grudge creating arguments and sulking. The local heritage folks feel betrayed for doing a good job for nearly a Century and getting crapped on by corporate.
This growing distrust and animosity was predicted as soon as Corporate moved from across the railroad tracks on E. Marginal Way So. to the Morton Salt Building in Chicago. What's fed the fires lately is the corporate penchant for elevating surplused drones from Long Beach to high positions in the company. Most old hands see this as putting the drunk who wrecked the Douglas machine right back in the drivers seat, the prime example was putting Stonecipher behind the wheel after he'd made a once proud company a smoking hole in aviation when there were a large number of more locally aware of how it works here, and worked well with the local folks, guys who'd clawed up the ladder just to get dumped on by an 'outsider' transfered away from LGB because their position as a 'chart boy' dried up.
Lots of those types were made managers or line Supers but had zero experience with any sort of 'touch labor', had never been on the factory floor, and never intefaced with the sweaty folks actually doing the work, given mobs of brand new just out of training non functionals and dropped onto the brand new 787 program when it was like trying to grab a BB in a running blender and inexperience on both sides of the issue didn't mesh, and couldn't find any common ground to start working issues 'this is all screwed up, we can't make 'it' work' 'well, I have a meeting to go to, do the best you can' to a group of 60 day newbies, a few experienced hands could probably made 'it' work, but those folks all got swept out the door in the previous drive to create a vast pool of lower pay grade 4's who would never be around long enough to make it to 7's or 9's as their years and knowledge grew, and initiative was not encouraged because, after all the new airplane would just 'click together' so we don't need a lot of experienced guys who'll just tell us 'we never do it that way' which gets in the way of the Boeing 2016 plan where stuff all flows in from overseas and goes together like a really big model and we don't need a lot of people as the eventual plan for Boeing 2016 is to do nothing to the airplane except put a sticker on the F.E.D. frame that says 'completed by Boeing'.
So South Carolina is seen as a strong slap in the face to the long time heritage builders here, and they deeply resent the implications of it.

[bdk]

I think those LGB folks you refer to first came from STL. Nobody ever went from LGB to STL, that's for sure!

I think the unions have also dug their own hole in this by being greedy.

787 is a mess because of how they planned and scheduled it. 747-8 didn't have all those problems. KC-46A is a mess too. The company is closing Wichita, but none of the management trusts anyone from LGB to help. They want half of LGB to move to Wichita temporarily. There aren't enough employees willing to go, especially since Seattle needs so much help and is willing to give out work packages.

LGB CAS is hiring engineers like crazy now to support Seattle.

[bdk]

DOUBLE POST....

[The Inspector]

Everyone needs to stop and take stock of what has, and is about to transpire unless someone turns the ship around. The Unions have a share of the blame about equal to the share the Company owns, show me difficult and confrontation and just guess what I'll give back to you, and it becomes a breath holding contest, unfortunately no one has the very fine balance skills to level the see saw, so it will continue.

Mullalley had the right idea and was slowly but positively moving in the right direction until Chicago kicked him to the curb to favor someone from either LGB or STL so he split to FORD and he must have been on the right track because what he was trying to do @ Boeing has sure worked with an even more hostile and upset workforce at the Blue Oval.

The 787 is its own fault thanks to FNG B.A.'s that 'know it all' straight out of college who decided to swallow JIT whole and trust that everyone else in the world had the same amount of drive and ambition, which they absolutely do not!! (well, it works at TOYMOTOR, but there are very few slotted parts on an airplane unlike the average CAMRY) Then they compounded the problem by giving the contractor the license to own the rights to the part they build so Boeing can never get the job back as the price for the process will always be 1 Lire or 1 Geeda more than offered and Boeing can't just produce it on their own because that then becomes 'license infringement' and 'a contractural issue' and everyone at the plant in East Yomamastan making the critically important 'gazooka valve' is out on a labor action and everything grinds to a complete halt.

As long as, and as soon as everyone has finished taking a dump in their own bed, it'll be time to lay down and roll over.

[bdk]

Looks like the SC built 787 is a flyer!

http://www.postandcourier.com/article/2 ... g-off-soon