Boeing Lifts Production on 777s; Plans Include 5,000 Added Jobs
May 10, 2011
Boeing Co. said it will increase the production rate of its big 777 airliner by 40% within the next year, and plans to add 5,000 more employees than previously projected to its overall work force for all of 2011. The latest decisions, which follow previously announced commercial-jet production increases and additional hiring moves, mean that Boeing's total employment will increase about 13% this year, to more than 118,000. That figure includes the company's aircraft, space and defense operations, but it doesn't factor in the impact of the anticipated acquisition of Rockwell International Corp.'s aerospace and defense holdings that employ 21,000 people. The production increase reflects the dramatic growth in jetliner orders being experienced by Boeing as airlines prepare their own expansion and look to replace older planes. The flurry of large new orders -- following a four-year drought that ended last year -- has come more swiftly than Boeing officials had expected. The speed of the resurgence has complicated operations and resulted in some snags and assembly-line delays at company factories from Washington state to Wichita, Kan.. Boeing officials say those delays have been temporary. Prior to Tuesday's announcement, the Seattle-based plane maker had said only that it intended to boost its monthly production rate for all types of planes to 34 by early 2013 from the current 19. The latest announcement of 777 rate increases would raise monthly production of all models to 36 planes by then. Boeing has declined to outline other elements of its production plans. Suppliers and others familiar with Boeing's plans believe the manufacturer intends to steadily ratchet up its total production to more than double the present rate, eventually assembling planes at a record rate of 46 or more per month by 2014. At that level, Boeing would produce more than 550 planes a year, compared with its previous record of 446 airliners assembled in 1992. In the announcement Tuesday, Boeing said it will increase production of its 300-seat 777 plane to seven planes a month by July 2012 from five planes a month currently. Suppliers and others tracking Boeing's strategy say that when Boeing reaches its planned maximum production level, the company also will be producing at least 24 of its smallest 737 models. In addition, it will be turning out three other models at a five-a-month rate, including the 757, the 767 and the 747 jumbo jet. In composite trading Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange, Boeing stock closed up 87.5 cents at $91.25. The 5,000 additional Boeing jobs come on top of 8,200 new hires the company announced earlier this year. Boeing anticipates that during all of 2011, about 9,800 jobs will be added in Washington state, with 3,300 more workers added to the payroll in Wichita, and a net addition of 400 jobs at other Boeing locations. In Philadelphia, the company's lead site for producing helicopters and Boeing's share of the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft, employment is expected to decrease by about 300 jobs this year. Boeing's total employment last peaked at about 165,000 workers as commercial-aircraft deliveries increased in early 1990, a company spokesman said. Boeing officials have vowed to become more efficient, avoiding the need to return to such sky-high employment levels -- and averting many of the layoffs that invariably follow when an airplane-buying cycle eventually slows down. However, experts have cautioned that the need to increase rates rapidly now could slow a sweeping Boeing overhaul of its manufacturing-engineering processes, a main way the company expects to become more efficient.
