Boeing faces fresh questions over whether it can meet what was already viewed to be an overly ambitious production schedule for the 787 Dreamliner, after the aerospace company said it had found a problem with the jet's fuselage.
The world's second-largest commercial plane-maker said it can fix what it described as "incorrect shimming" and stood by its goal to make 10 Dreamliners per month by the end of next year. But some analysts say the target was unrealistic to begin with and a new glitch will only slow production more.
Goose,
The current 787 production is 2.5 units a month, ramping up to 3.5 and at the end of the year 5 units a month. The 10 a month is to be reached by the end of 2013.
It hinges on how big the "shimming" issue is and if they find other problems associated with the new technology used on the Dreamliner.
If the problem is minor as Boeing says, then they will reach their 5/month at the end of 2012 and 10 at the end of 2013.
Gravity always wins!
Boeing Announced this on February 9th.
"We do not expect the issue that surfaced earlier this week on the aft fuselage shims to affect our rate ramp-up plans," McNerney said on a webcast of the conference. "We've already addressed the issue in production, and it's a standard repair procedure for any existing airplanes that might be affected.
"Condition of assembly is improving with each airplane and we are closely monitoring the entire supply chain to ensure operational stability as we systematically go to higher rates," he said.
The latest problem, resulted from a manufacturing flaw at a Boeing plant in South Carolina.
We seen a lot of statements over the years and time will tell if this one is correct.