The recent grounding of all Boeing 787 Dreamliners must be a nightmare for the company as the inspection process drags on and a quick resolution doesn’t seem to be in the books.
If that is the case, the company is certainly putting on a brave face posting 4th quarter profits higher than estimated and saying its business as usual at the company.
In fact, Boeing has opted to stick with its plan to speed up production noting that a slow-down or halt in production could put some of its suppliers out of business.
At this time, it appears that the 787 Dreamliner’s first customers, including All Nippon in Japan, are the most adversely affected by the aircraft’s issues as they’ve had to cancel flights. That might be a lesson in not being the first customer for an innovative new product. It might be shiny and new but you don’t want to be the one who receives a product, especially a plane, before all of the bugs are worked out.
As inspectors scratch their heads trying to pinpoint the cause of the 787’s lithium battery issues it will be interesting to see how Boeing comes out of this setback. So far many of Boeing’s customers are standing behind them and seem confident aircraft orders won’t be affected by the grounding. We’ll have to see how Boeing’s next fiscal quarter is affected, if at all.
This article was originally published on ShiftCentral, now part of LAC Group.
Mario Thériault
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