Posted on 01/31/2007 8:14:07 PM PST by MinorityRepublican
Boeing Co. is showing early signs of turning company-record orders for jetliners into profits.
After raking in 1,044 new orders in 2006, on top of 1,002 orders in 2005, Boeing's Commercial Airplanes unit has about six years of production on its books at current rates, valued at $174 billion. As the company ramps up production, its ability to profitably produce the airplanes on order will test its commitment to efficient manufacturing, and it should have a greater influence on Boeing's stock performance than the usual practice of keeping track of the yearly order race against rival Airbus.
"If you add it all up, I think I'd pay a little more attention to the backlog right now," Boeing Chairman and Chief Executive Jim McNerney said.
Yesterday, in an early sign of its progress, Boeing said its fourth-quarter net income doubled, and it said it expects more solid growth for at least the next two years.
Mr. McNerney said the value of Boeing's order backlog is "many multiples of the yearly revenue of our company" and will likely continue to keep pace during the next couple of years as U.S. and European mainline airlines order new planes. [Boeing]
Its Commercial Airplanes arm, once a laggard, saw its revenue jump by 37% during the quarter. At the same time, the unit's operating margins climbed to 8.7% from 6% during same quarter in 2005. For the full year, operating margins were 9.6%, compared with 6.7% the year before.
The improved operating margins are a key indicator that lean manufacturing techniques, which enabled Boeing to shave multiple days off the final assembly of its jetliners, are playing a role in profitability as Boeing keeps up with demand.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
when Nancy and Harry get wind of it.
Obscene profits....way too much....how dare they do this?
Ping!
Ford: No comment. Good luck Mulally!
This is an insult to the EU and the fine manufactures of the AirBus........and it's not fair!
We have no right to do this!!!
Boeing's lean manufacturing techniques, I do know they have the planes on a moving line in the floor that moves the planes at a certain pace in a hour , but, do they do it with all the parts of the plane ? or just adding on parts like the landing gear, interior parts, but, not the body assembly ? or do they do the whole plane on the moving line ?
I'm sure the EU is getting ready to demand billions from Boeing claiming its a monopoly or some other crap like they constantly try to pull against other US businesses that are successful.
When is strike scheduled>
yeah!
Thanks to whoever put the keyword "AEROSPACE" on this post!
A lean manufacturing system does not use a moving line to set the pace of production. The moving line may still be used to transport the assembly. Instead work stations are told to only build if the station downline from them needs product. This minimizes work in progress (WIP), finished goods inventory goes way down, as does total inventory. Bottlenecks are attacked with either more efficient methods or increased capacity at those stations. Throughput times are significantly decreased. Since rework and rejects are very costly, every effort is made to design the product to go together easily and consistently with a minimum of specialized training (poke-a-yoke). I have seen the methods improve manufacturing numbers by orders of magnitude.
"When is strike scheduled?"
3-year contract was ratified with the Puget Sound area IAM Sept 2005. SPEEA (the engineers) also signed a 3-year in Nov 2005. Looks like 2009 will be interesting.
Also, with the less inventory, the less the tax man take'th.
Ping!
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