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Aviation analyst Richard Aboulafia believes then-commercial airplanes CEO Alan Mullaly didn't want to outsource so much work when the Dreamliner was in its infancy, but he did to get the plane in the air. (AP Photo/File)

Is outsourcing to blame for Boeing's battery problem?

BY Chris Sullivan  on February 14, 2013 @ 5:48 am (Updated: 2:36 pm - 2/14/13 )

Boeing has admitted before that the long delays in the Dreamliner program can be blamed, in part, on a heavy reliance on outsourcing the design work. But can the current problems with the batteries and electrical systems also be blamed on that outsourcing?

Aviation analyst Richard Aboulafia believes then-commercial airplanes CEO Alan Mullaly didn't want to outsource so much work when the Dreamliner was in its infancy, but he did to get the plane in the air.

Aboulafia believes the delays in launch and now possibly the problems with the batteries and electrical system can be attributed to that work being pushed out of Puget Sound.

"The result, of course, was a 787 program that was somewhat underfunded because there was a great belief that the first-tier integrators would do so much of the heavy lifting," Aboulafia said. "That didn't work out so good, and then you got to the crazy, insane 'Oh my God it's all gone horribly wrong, throw money at it' level which is where we are now."

Boeing Vice President of Marketing Randy Tinseth wouldn't go so far to blame the current battery issue on outsourcing, but he did admit to an aerospace conference in Lynnwood Wednesday, that the company did rely too heavily on it suppliers.

"I don't think there's any question that we went, initially, too far on the [787] in asking our suppliers to do too much, asking them to manage a very complicated supply chain in a way they weren't comfortable with."

Boeing has since pulled back a lot of the work, and it's looking for the right balance of in-and-out-house work, and while Tinseth wouldn't discuss the 787 battery problems or the investigation, he did tell the conference solving the problem is the company's top priority.

"Our teams are working 24/7," Tinseth said. "They're working with the FAA. They're working with other government agencies to get the airplane back in the air."

So how long is that going to take?

Analyst Aboulafia said it's surprising to him that it's taking this long to find out what's happening with the batteries and electrical system.

"It's a little scary because you want something that's easily explicable, something that can be rectified, and they don't appear to be there yet," Aboulafia said. "They're working on theories. We're sort of hoping it's almost like a hand of God thing 'ah that was it, end of problem,' but it doesn't look like that is going to happen."

Aboulafia believes Boeing is facing redesigning portions of the airplane which could extend the current grounding for months.

"If it is a redesign of a system that requires re-certification, your talking at a bare minimum six to nine months after you discover what's wrong," he said. "However, if there's a work-around that's provided, you could see a return to service for these aircraft, but there are no guarantees."

Aboulafia said it's possible the FAA could allow the 787 back into passenger service during the redesign, the work-around that he mentioned. The FAA has allowed that before in other cases before.

But despite the pain right now, Aboulafia still believes in the 787 and in Boeing.

"In the long run, I still think they'll get it right," he said. "It will still be a big success. We're keeping the faith despite what I think we all agree will be a really difficult year for the program."

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Chris Sullivan, KIRO Radio Reporter
Chris loves the rush of covering breaking news and works hard to try to make sense of it all while telling stories about real people in extraordinary circumstances.
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Comments (10)


  • Add A Comment

  • fartforce1 wrote...
    In this instance, I would say very little.
    February 14, 2013 9:54 am
    The dream liner is the world’s most outsourced passenger plane, but not everything can be blamed on using suppliers. We see the battery may not be a manufacturing problem at all, small chemical stalactites that build up on the inside of the battery is. What causes them is unknown. It could even be sun flares. So pointing fingers at outsourcing is as stupid as pointing fingers at the union because no answer is yet known.
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  • southi5 wrote...
    Boeing outsources
    February 14, 2013 10:01 am
    To get away from the greedy unions, how many strikes were there during the building and design process? What did you think would happen? Lazy B strikes again!
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • faithbased wrote...
    No Strikes
    February 14, 2013 10:13 am
    The electrical design teams that worked alongside the 787 partners, were engineers and techs, who would be represented by SPEEA, if they were union at all. There have not been any SPEEA strikes during the 787 development, none. Come to think of it, there haven't been any IAM strikes during production of the 787 either. So that's the facts, not to protect the unions, but just to inform. Although I do agree with your sentiment of the high frequency of past IAM strikes.
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  • irony wrote...
    NO ...
    February 14, 2013 10:35 am
    the faa allowed a battery type that is known as being riskier than the common battery type. they said as long as the battery could be contained it was an okay risk. HELLO, AN OKAY RISK...START WITH THE OLD STANDBY SAFE AND SANE BATTERY NEXT TIME AND LEAVE IT THAT WAY. thankfully the NTSB is putting the blame on the lax desire to make it safe to start with.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • DesertRez wrote...
    Ya
    February 14, 2013 10:57 am
    and lets go back to wooden airframes and cable controls.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • MainEvent wrote...
    actually the IAM did strike once
    February 14, 2013 10:42 am
    in 2008. SPEEA hasnt been on strike for a very very long time. I'm not 100% but i think its 25 years. People who are quick to blame unions have no clue what they are talking about. If your blaming the outsourcing on high wage union jobs why would they outsource to England, Japan, France and Italy just to name a few which all have higher labor costs?? The outsourcing was very political some because they wanted orders from their governments some to introduce Boeing product into the suppliers/partners statement of work to disrupt and slow airbus production too.
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  • itiswhatitis wrote...
    you can blame it on some things but not this
    February 14, 2013 12:10 pm
    you are using a new technologies all the way around and with batteries with known issues. Obviously the FAA OK'd the plane as safe. Then issues started to show with normal wear and tear and a problem was discovered. I do think you can blame part of the assembly items which comes in as substandard. Thank goodness the NTSB said no fire is tollerable on a flight...duh.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • clevesside wrote...
    Ask any soul in Boeing supply mgt.....
    February 14, 2013 2:39 pm
    ...re: outsourcing and they would tell you "abandon hope." Outsourcing, qualififed or not, has always been part of the sales contract as well, so nothing new here.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
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