accomplish 25 jobs (or tasks) a day.” Things have certainly changed since those very early days. Boeing subsequently acquired the Vought and Global Aeronautica plants, and later built a 1.2-millionsquare foot (112,000-square-meter) Final Assembly building next door to increase 787 production as well as deliver complete Dreamliners to customers from North Charleston. In April 2012, the first Dreamliner built at the site rolled out the factory doors as employees celebrated. For the first time ever, Boeing employees had built a commercial jetliner somewhere other than on the West Coast. Today, the Boeing South Carolina site in North Charleston is producing three 787s per month, a rate that will increase to seven Dreamliners per month by the end of the decade. That will match current 787 production at the Everett plant on the other side of the country. 18 Boeing Frontiers And Boeing South Carolina supports 787 production in Everett and North Charleston with 10 mid- and aft-fuselage sections a month, a rate that will increase to 14 a month by the end of the decade. Deutsch is now a manager, leading a team in Midbody Operations responsible for lower system installation. “Coming into this, most of the folks didn’t have much aviation experience,” Deutsch said. “But I tell you what, the amount of experience that has been groomed here now is nothing short of amazing. It hasn’t been that long ago that it all started here—a new industry rising up in South Carolina. And to see these people do the kinds of incredible work they are doing is inspiring.” As he talked about “the energy on the shop floor” and how “everybody here is challenging one another to do even better,” behind Deutsch was the midbody fuselage of a U.S.-based airline’s 787, followed on the production line by the midbody section for an airline in China. Like their 787 colleagues in Everett, the North Charleston employees are producing both the 787-8 and the longer 787-9. The first North Charleston–made 787-9, for United Airlines, entered final assembly late last year. In a couple of years, production will begin on the still-longer 787-10, which will be built only by Boeing South Carolina. Ground has been broken and dump trucks are moving dirt for a state-of-the-art paint facility. When it opens in late 2016, Dreamliners won’t have to fly off to be painted in Louisiana or elsewhere before they are delivered to customers—one more improvement in efficiency. A second autoclave is coming, to support manufacturing of the longer aftbody fuselage of the 787-10 and program rate increases, in the same former Vought building where employees produce the 787-8 and 787-9 aft-fuselage barrels. The building has more than doubled in
Frontiers March 2015 Issue
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