IAM Strike At Boeing Leads To Supply Glut
Even with the nearly two-month Boeing strike by the
International Association of Machinists now resolved, ripples are
still being felt by the aerospace company's suppliers.
The Seattle Times reported Monday that Vought Aircraft, which
produces rear fuselage segments for the composite-bodied 787
Dreamliner at its plant in Charleston, SC, has slashed production
nearly to a crawl due to a bottleneck in the supply chain.
Boeing was forced to halt almost all commercial airliner
production due to the IAM strike. However, Vought continued
building the fuse segments throughout the strike, hoping a quick
resolution would surface.
That didn't happen, though... and with production lines at
Boeing still idled, that led to an overage of parts waiting to be
shipped to Everett, WA. Vought stopped production October 24, with
fuselage segments through airplane 19 ready to be shipped.
The halt to further production work at Vought also necessitates
massive layoffs, as the line isn't expected to be restarted until
sometime next year. Joy Romero, Vought's 787 program manager, says
about 170 Vought workers in Charleston and another 20 contract
workers will be handed their walking papers Thursday.
As many as 400 workers total will be handed their walking
papers, or roughly half of all Vought employees responsible for the
787 program. The company also has a 787 engineering and support
facility in Dallas, TX.
"Boeing cannot simply 'turn the
switch on' and be back up to speed instantaneously. It will take
them time to ramp back up to schedule," Romero wrote in a memo to
employees Monday. "Obviously, Boeing cannot absorb our 787 fuselage
sections beyond the capacity of their own assembly line -- which
has not been moving.
"Up to now, we have continued to work on our fuselage sections,
getting them ready for delivery to Boeing," Romero added. "Now we
must extend our temporary shutdown to include most of our assembly
operations, except for installing engineering changes on airplanes
5 and 6. This will take place within the week."
The Times notes planes 5 and 6 are the next slated for
completion in Everett. Romero said she doesn't know when the plant
will resume production.
"The length of this temporary shutdown will be determined after
we receive a revised 787 schedule from Boeing, which we expect
within the next 30 days," she wrote in the memo. "However, we would
anticipate that the shutdown would be at least the same length as
the strike, likely longer."