Boeing began their process by putting together their design and innovative ideas for the Dreamliner 787 at their headquarters plant in Seattle, Washington, U.S. Where their main flaws began was when the company outsourced 70% of the manufacturing to countries across the world. These countries included Korea, the United Kingdom, France, China, and Russia. Immediately, their transportation costs soared. The majority of their operations were not in proximity to their assembly plant. Not only did their costs increase significantly with international suppliers, there was product issues also. When employees in Seattle received the seven main body parts of the Dreamliner work-in-process, some did not fit with one and other. To add to their problems, some suppliers did not have the capabilities to complete the tasks delegated to them. For example, their Japan operations did not prepare the facets properly. Knowingly, Japanese employees painted them red so the American employees could replace them. This slowed down their process and again, added to costs. Not only did Boeing incur transportation waste (excessive movement), they incurred waiting waste (time the product is being transported), inappropriate processing, and defects (wasteful costs to repair and schedule).
All these deliverable delays resulted in dramatically increased internal failure cost. These costs result from defects that are discovered during production of services or products, yield losses (scrap), rework costs like the Japan facets, and eventually prevention costs. You know what else these delays did? Affect their online reputation. Actually, many people stopped believing in the Dreamliner and if it would be delivered. Many relationships were broken, money was lost, and the Dreamliner’s reputation was on rocky waters.
This is a very famous example of how poor operations can affect your online reputation. Soon enough, stakeholders wanted “out” of the Dreamliner and they were not willing to put up any more money to support its production. To this day, despite its in-flight performance, the Dreamliner leaves a bitter taste in many individual’s mouthes. Moreover, the Dreamliner’s online reputation has suffered tremendously. There still remain bad online articles that are haunting the Dreamliner and its production and legacy.
