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Boeing working to fix bottlenecks in Dreamliner production

Boeing says it is aware of bottlenecks in production of the 787 Dreamliner and is working to fix the problems.

The manufacturer was responding to claims that its plant in North Charleston, South Carolina, cannot finish thousands of work orders and is sending pieces to a larger plant at Everett in Washington state to be completed so that the company can maintain its 10-a-month production rate.

Reuters reported that some employees who work on the aircraft are calling into question Boeing’s ability to sustain that pace.

They claim the two factories that assemble the 787 are struggling to cope with a ramp-up in production that started late last year, and a huge backlog of unfinished work threatens to slow output.

The company has hired hundreds of contract workers in South Carolina and created special teams at its Everett base.

They are inspecting new aircraft and taking on extra tasks, known as “travelled work” because it was moved from South Carolina to Everett.

“While we try to minimise it, travelled work is something we deal with in all production programmes,” a Boeing spokesman was quoted as saying.

“The 787 programme remains on track to meet its delivery commitments in 2014 and we are producing 787s at a rate of 10 per month as planned.”

Boeing chief executive Jim McNerney told an industry conference last week that bottlenecks in the South Carolina factory appeared as Boeing added a stretched version of the 787-8, known as the 787-9, while increasing the production rate.

There was “not any sign that the 787 program is off the rails or we may not be able to hold 10 a month,” McNerney told the conference organised by Cowen & Co.

“This is what happens on all of our programmes,” he said. “Sometimes when we break to a rate, it surfaces an issue that needs some extra attention. And that’s really the story here.”

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