[spuwho]

While McDonnell Douglas seems to be the whipping boy for Boeing Commercial Aircraft (BCA) problems, many of the business decisions actually predate the merger. As a college student in 1988, a BCA executive was invited to speak in our capstone class about Boeing plans for the future. The executive spoke about their extensive outsourcing strategy. Where Boeing would still design the platform, but suppliers would be required to design/build to spec. This distribution of work was supposed to drive out the vertical costs of design/build inside Boeing. The 777 was at the time in testing out at Moses Lake and nearing release. The reaction in the class was somewhat of a shock. Boeing was essentially "giving away" their book on how to make an airplane (a quality one) and turning it over to all of these suppliers with a mandate to do it more cheaply. The Boeing exec was quite pleased with how much money this was going to save the company as they became only the prime assembly point, with essential components coming in JIT mode from around the world. Students were quick to challenge him during the Q&A asking how they were going to maintain quality by so much outsourcing, he stated that there would be contractual requirements and inspections to make sure the components met the spec. McDonnell Douglas business methods are not above it either as they too were looking to outsource MD-9x parts production overseas before they were bought out by Boeing. Their effort to partner with Airbus to build a super-jumbo by fusing certain MD-11 design elements (MD-12) is no secret.

So in summary, let me state for the record that Boeing's redirection into outsourced suppliers and engineering was moving forward by 1988. Well before the merger with MCD.