Boeing holds up 747-8 line for a month as work backs up

Boeing will stop moving planes forward on its 747-8 jet production line in Everett for a month so mechanics can catch up on a backlog of thousands of unfinished jobs that are choking the line.

Boeing said the temporary halt won't affect the first delivery of a freighter model of the jumbo jet to Cargolux, scheduled for summer.

Spokesman Jim Proulx said the company is "evaluating the effect on the delivery schedule" for subsequent airplanes and keeping customers informed.

Elizabeth Lund, 747-8 vice president and program manager, sent a note to employees Thursday afternoon, telling them the production line will freeze in place from May 6 through June 7. The planes won't move from their positions so they can be worked on.

"Work will continue on all our airplanes in all stages of production," Lund told employees. "I'm counting on your continued dedication as we work through this challenge."

The 747-8 is the latest and largest version of Boeing's venerable jumbo jet, 250 feet long with a 224-foot wingspan and a takeoff weight just shy of 500 tons.

With a new wing, new engines and updated flight-deck avionics, the list price is nearly $320 million.

The freighter version flew first in February 2010; the passenger version, the 747-8 Intercontinental, had its first flight in March.

So far, 20 of the jets have rolled out of the factory. Five freighter models and two passenger models are in flight test, while the rest are parked on the Everett flight line.

Lund listed three reasons for the hold on production movement: a buildup of unfinished work; the need to retrofit required design changes to planes already built, because of information learned in the ongoing flight tests; and early preparations for a production-rate increase next year from 1.5 jets per month to two per month.

A production worker said the program is 11,000 jobs behind, meaning that the number of tasks that should be completed have instead traveled forward in the production process still unfinished. Proulx declined to confirm that figure.

The design changes stemming from flight testing include modifications to correct barely perceptible vibrations at the wingtips and in a movable control surface on the wing, detected early on in flight tests during extreme flight conditions.

The passenger model of the airplane is particularly backed up with incomplete work.

"The process of starting up the regular production of the 747-8 Intercontinental has created some challenges," said Lund.

Lund described the next month of catch-up work as a "tough challenge."

"While we have worked hard to create the best plan possible, we know it's not going to be perfect," Lund told employees. "I absolutely depend on you to help us overcome the inevitable challenges we'll face and to do everything you can to ensure that when we resume our normal factory schedule in June, we'll have a production line that's healthy."

One longtime production worker said the hold on the line is something that has happened on new programs and is not necessarily very negative.

"On the 747-400 in 1989, it was used to clean house and get everything in order after the big push to get the first models out and speed up the production rate," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "After that, everything ran fine. You have to stop and do your spring cleaning. It's a proven way to ramp up production."

By holding the line for a month, Boeing will avoid sending more unfinished planes out to the flight line at Everett, which is already full of 787 Dreamliners and previously built 747-8s, many of them still needing extensive work.

It's much easier to catch up on work inside the factory, protected from the weather and with cranes and other equipment readily available.

Last year, when the 787 program struggled with a huge backup of work, Boeing put a hold on that production line on three separate occasions, for weeks at a time.

In the end, that didn't stop unfinished planes from rolling out and piling up on the flight line and around the edges of Paine Field airport.

Dominic Gates: 206-464-2963 or dgates@seattletimes.com