Shared success

The annual Pacific Northwest Aerospace Alliance conference in Lynnwood, Wash. continues to grow every year. Today, I once again had the pleasure of speaking with our supplier partners who’ve been just as busy as we have over the past year.

It’s very clear that Boeing won’t be successful if our supply chain partners aren’t successful. That’s because 65 percent of our costs come through the supply chain. As we continue to increase production rates, it’s crucial that our suppliers continue to invest in facilities, equipment, Lean manufacturing and innovation.

We now procure a billion components and assemblies a year from about 1,500 production suppliers in 34 countries around the world. Last year we spent $43 billion with our supply chain partners. As we continue to grow our production, those numbers will only get bigger.

As for any news coming out of today’s session, there was more talk and speculation about a 757 replacement. Some even suggested a re-engined 757. The fact is, there’s absolutely no business case to support that.

We’re very happy with our 737 and 787 product lineups. So we’re studying the space in between them. Customer feedback has led us to look at an airplane that is larger than today’s 737 and has greater range than the 757.

Of course, our main focus areas continue to executing on our production rate increases and our current airplane development programs. That’s more than enough to keep all of us busy for some time to come.