Supply Chain Problems Delay Boeing’s 787

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer (10/11, Wallace) reports that “The Boeing Co. finally acknowledged Wednesday what many in the industry had been expecting for some time — the 787 Dreamliner will be late to customers.”

Boeing’s problems are “more an issue of getting the supply chain up and going,” Boeing Chief Executive Jim McNerney said in a Seattle Times (10/11, Gates) report. “It’s starting up the supply chain, rather than a fatal flaw in the supply chain,” he added. However, the company still “plans to produce 109 [planes] through the end of 2009, just three short of its prior goal.”