787

After 15 months and millions of dollars spent, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner has resumed commercial flights. The groundbreaking jet, introduced in July 2003 was dubbed as the next generation airplane that would revolutionize the way air travel operated. Soon after preliminary flights, major aircraft corporations began to notice technical and mechanical issues that affected the reliability of the jet. These problems resulted in flights being delayed and cancelled. In January, two 787s owned by Japanese airlines experienced burning batteries that would later ground all 787s.

Prior to the grounding, delivered 787s logged a reliability rating of 97.7% (23 delays/cancellations out of 1000 flights). This result was comparable to the long tested and proven 777 that that 787 aims to replace. As technology expands, systems become more intricate and coincide with higher rates of failure. The 787 is an example of new age lithium-ion batteries, electrical systems, and computer systems that alter service requirements. This plane alone requires 10 times more power during startup than traditional Boeing planes, computer and electrical systems to be turned on three hours before each flight, and scheduled maintenance in between each flight.

During this downtime Boeing continuously has been mass producing these airplanes to fill the 800+ orders that have been filed from 50+ customers. By April 2013, 50 planes have been built and delivered to their respective companies. However, this plane does retain more positives than negatives, thus accounting for the 800+ orders. With this new technology, the planes will be able to be serviced in as little as 45 minutes. This will allow for companies to keep their planes in the air instead of on the ground. In addition, new light weight materials have been used and new fuel efficient engines fitted on the wings that allow for longer distance flights without using more fuel.

Aboard the new computer system, Boeing has also included a transmitter that will upload the airplane’s data to a world-wide network managed by Boeing’s facilities near Seattle. This system will track each jet’s information, making it easier for mechanics to fix any issues that may have occurred during a flight. This system will also allow for Boeing to monitor necessary maintenance updates as well as be able to ground any planes that it deems unsafe to fly.

Years behind schedule and plagued with problems, the Boeing 787 did not have a successful start. Boeing executives believe that in the future years to come, this plane will be more reliable than the 777 and project a reliability rating of 99+%. The 787 is a key example of problems during the operations strategy of a company and their ability to overcome difficult situations that result in millions of dollars of losses. At this point the 787 is operational, but if similar problems occur in the future, Boeing may lose potential orders.

With so many problems occurring with the 787, do you believe that its main competitor (Airbus) may be regarded as a safer investment?

What do you believe lies in the future for the 787? Will it continue to experience more problems or will it beat the projected 99+% reliability?

Works Cited
Ostrower, Jon, and Andy Pasztor. “Dreamliner’s Other Issues Draw Attention; Boeing and Airlines Try to Improve More Systems After Fixing Battery Flaws.” Wall Street Journal (Online): n/a. May 20 2013. ProQuest. Web. 22 May 2013.

Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, which is supposed to be the most fuel efficient Airlines, hasn’t stayed in the skies for long due to its lithium-ion battery issues. Recently, the 787 Dreamliners have had overheating battery problems in January due to which they had to halt services. Two of the aircrafts from Japan, one All Nippon Airlines and the other being Japanese Airlines, had to be grounded due to electrical fire in the batteries. Later, the entire 787 Dreamliner fleet was grounded totaling 50 planes, which has cost Boeing about $600 million.

Leading engineers and battery experts made alterations to the electrical systems. Boeing stated they put ten teams of about 30 engineers worldwide to fix the problem. The engineers covered the batteries in a stainless steel box. They redesigned the batteries to reduce the chances of short circuit. They installed new and higher quality batteries, battery chargers, and exhaust systems in order to help in the occurrence of overheating.

Boeing expressed that they went in great depths to discover the reason behind the problem; however, the quality control and maintenance sectors failed to detect the potential cause of the electrical fire. Furthermore, Boeing chairman and chief executive also stated that the repairs of these 50 planes will be finished by the end of April, and they will start deliveries of 787 in next month, May. He further asserted, “Our first priority in the days ahead is to fully restore our customers’ 787 fleets to service and resume production deliveries.” The plane will then be safe to fly, authorities have stated. But the question of the cause still remains a problem.

The Dreamliner has done good business, especially in Asia and the Middle East as they depend on long-range flights more and since the airline is made up of lighter weight composite materials and provides great fuel economy. But since experts could not untangle the enigma behind the fires, people may still be skeptic about trusting the safety of the planes. This could even result in people switching to planes with conventional technology rather than the innovative, yet malfunctioning 787s, which can highly damage Dreamliner’s predicted sales.

Moreover, Larry Loftis vice president and general manager of the 787 program mentioned that there is a possibility that they may never be able to find the real cause. Nonetheless, he declared that this calamity will not impact the expansion of other jets and “would not derail Boeing’s plans to double 787 production to 10 a month by the end of the year.” He even announced that this will also not postpone the upcoming edition of the 787, known as 787-9.

With that said, how would this affect the time ahead for 787? How would this tarnish its image and hurt future sales? Should they alter their forecasted sales due to this incident?

Sources:

http://www.nbcnews.com/business/dreamliner-set-fly-week-boeing-fixes-battery-6C9542306

http://money.cnn.com/2013/04/19/news/economy/boeing-dreamliner/index.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/apr/24/boeing-787-dreamliner-repairs-completed-may

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/apr/22/boeing-repairs-dreamliner-batteries