By Christopher Harress - In an effort to ease the backlog of work that the Boeing Company (NYSE:BA) Charleston plant has built up in recent months, the Chicago-based company will offer an eight percent bonus to workers provided they fix the problems by April 30.
The unfinished work on the 787 Dreaminer was causing a rift between workers at the Everett, Washington, plant who had been receiving unfinished and faulty fuselages from the Charleston plant, who are claiming that they didn’t have the manpower to keep up with the demand of 10 aircraft a month from headquarters.
Boeing have already hired an additional 1,100 skilled contract workers in an attempt to solve the problems. However, the backlog has persisted and the Charleston team remains about 8,000 jobs behind schedule, which is about 10 days' work.
The main crux of the issue is unfinished wiring, which was being neglected so Charleston could meet targets when sending aircraft to Everett for completion.
“There are still a lot of wiring issues,” and the solution is “taking a lot of manpower and a lot of hours,” a Charleston worker told the Seattle Times.
The next fuselage that is due to be sent to Everett is Dreamliner number 178 and the company is aiming to have the problems resolved by aircraft number 195.
However, one Charleston worker said that the expectation that those issues will be resolved in a couple of months is unrealistic and added the Charleston plant was in chaos.
And while Charleston works hard to get production back the level it should, the Everett plant continues to pick up the slack, resulting in losing two to three production days per week.
One unnamed Everett employee said that the whole production process in Everett comes to a complete standstill every week as they complete the work that wasn’t done in Charleston.
Boeing spokesman Marc Birtel, however, said that the 787 remains on target despite the problems.
“Traveled work is something we deal with in all production programs,” Birtel said, adding that the Charleston “mid-body team is working to a plan that will result in improved performance, and significantly less additional work (traveling to Everett), in the months ahead.”
If the amount of jobs can be reduced to 3,500 by April 30 the workers will receive around $2,500. If they cannot, the bonus will be reduced by 40 percent, and if the target is not reached by June 30 it will be zero.