|
Composite aircraft manufacturer gets back on track
By Scott Miller
Staff Writer
Ross Erwin was in search of a better job. Living in Prior, Okla., Erwin was installing antennas for a cable company when he heard about Vought Aircraft Industries’ need for workers.
He packed up and moved to Charleston in hopes of securing a job. Erwin was hired six months ago and is working as a mechanical assembly associate testing hydrolic lines.
Erwin and others like him are part of the solution to Vought’s early struggles.
Once considered a weak link in the supply chain for Boeing Co.’s now-delayed 787 Dreamliner program, Vought is ahead of schedule at its North Charleston plant.
Plant Operations Director Tom Mann joked that the fuselage manufacturer won’t need to rent self-storage but could be in a position to store completed sections of the fuselage at the plant before shipping it to Boeing.
That’s a marked turnaround for a company that struggled to send Boeing completed products, even near-completed products. The first fuselage Vought
delivered in May 2007 was 16% complete on the structures side but had no systems work done.
Vought sent the fuselage section anyway so Boeing could move forward with its production schedules at its plant in Everette, Wash.
But in early June, Vought delivered a product with structures at 98% complete and systems 87%, said Joy Romero, vice president of Vought’s 787 program.
Each delivery has become progressively better, she said, as Vought has corrected problems
with its own supplier base.
“We’re responsible for our own supply chain,” Romero said. “We’ve gotten through that. We’re past that.”
Bob Noble, Boeing vice president for supplier management, agreed with that assessment but wouldn’t discuss delivery schedules.
“The fabricated barrel production at Vought is actually doing quite well,” he said. “It’s not perfect yet, but it’s a whole lot better.”
Vought, Boeing and Global Aeronautica, which also partners in the 787 program and has a facility adjacent to Vought’s, invited reporters from around the country to tour the plants this month to tout advancements in production. It was the first media tour in two years.
Boeing delayed commercial launch of the 787 three times since October amid supplier problems. The company now plans to launch in the third quarter of 2009, as opposed to last month, as originally planned.
In North Charleston, meanwhile, Vought boosted production by mandating that mechanics work 10 hours a day, six days a week. Some employees even volunteered to work seven days a week, Mann said.
The company has worked to “change the culture” at the Vought plant, trying to make production workers feel like part of a global team, Romero said. While the company has experienced some attrition, Romero said no one left because of the mandatory overtime.
Vought has about 325 employees at the plant and another 300 contract workers.
“(The workload) is strenuous, but we’ve made adjustments,” said Michael Fanning, a mechanic who’s been with Vought around four months.
The result is not only a better product, but more product. The company sent its fourth fuselage section this month and started work on the 19th. Now, Vought plans to slow the pace in accordance with a scaled-based production schedule from Boeing.
Noble insisted the delays were not the sole vault of Vought’s or its employees in North
Charleston.
“The people of South Carolina should be proud of what’s happening in this facility,” he said.
Scott Miller is a staff writer with the Charleston Regional Business Journal. E-mail him at smiller@scbiznews.com.
|
E-Mail This Article
Printer-Friendly Version
