The Boeing Company
Introduction
The Boeing Company is one of the worlds largest US based aerospace company which is
founded by William Boeing in 1913. Boeing manufactures defense, space and security
systems and commercial airlines. Boeing is well known for its wide range of products and
services which include commercial and military aircrafts, weapons, satellites, electronic
defense systems, launch systems and information and communication systems (Boeing,
2013). One among the list of products listed above, we will be discussing about the
prestigious commercial airplane of Boeing i.e. Dreamliner 787.
From past 4 decades, Boeing has been the leading manufacturer of commercial jetliners.
Boeing commercial airplanes – is a business division of the Boeing Company with its
headquarters located in Renton, Washington (Wikipedia, 2013). Since beginning, Boeing’s
commercial jetliners are named 7X7 series with first one Boeing 707 launched in
December, 1957 (Wikipedia, 2013). Other jets released to date include 737, 747, 757
(Ended on 2004), 767, 777, 787 with 787 being the latest.
Boeing 787 Dreamliner
The first Boeing 787 Dreamliner was delivered to Japan’s ANA in 2011, nearly 40 months
after the planned delivery date. The expected delivery was in May 2008 where as the
major changes in design and supply chain led to an unexpected delay (Keri E. Peterson et
al, 2013). The fuel efficient 787 Dreamliner‘s manufacturing has become complicated due
to multiple changes implemented all at once. Far from the traditional manufacturing,
Dreamliner design consists of many new features like unique design, one piece fuselage,
reduced weight, 20% increase in fuel economy, and reduction in maintenance time. Apart
from the changes in design, another major difficulty was the company’s global supply
chain network (Keri E. Peterson et al, 2013). Boeing has significantly changed the
production process along with design changes. In addition, Boeing outsourced two most
critical parts – fuselage and wings. Everything put together, the complications kept
increasing and so is the delay. Yet, finally the plane entered the market years late but the
design came out as expected!
The plane can hold up to 210- 250 passengers on routes of 7650 – 8200 nautical miles and
satisfies the fuel economy by consuming 20% less and travels at the same speed when
compared to other similar sized airplanes. Boeings offering 3 variants in Dreamliner series
with 787-8 as the first followed by 787-9 which carries 250-290 passengers and 787-10
which is launched in June 2013 with seating of 300-330 passengers (Boeing, n.d.)
