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Boeing's goal is to make 10 Dreamliners a month by late 2013. The current rate is 2 per month, which Boeing hopes to move up to 2.5 a month by November 2011, and 3.5 a month by early Spring. Boeing CEO, McInerney, says it will take a few years before each Dreamliner turns a profit. He expects this will happen before 2020. The large investment during this decade should see returns in terms of an annuity for 25-35 years, said McInerney. The Dreamliner is the first jetliner to be made largely of plastic-composite materials, in place of aluminium. To build the Dreamliner Boeing had to accomplish what McInerney calls "game-changing innovation," and at the same time achieve improvements in production techniques. Jim Albaugh, head of Boeing's Commercial Airplanes division, says the next step is to take what takes an hour and half to assemble and bring this down to 15 minutes. This will help meet a long backlog of orders. Boeing has 820 orders for the Dreamliner as of Sept. 2011. The first Dreamliner was delivered on Sept. 26, 2011, to All Nippon Airways....

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How the global supplier system, while it spreads some of the financial risk, also creates a number of problems Boeing has to resolve. The advanced nature of the plane using composite materials instead of aluminium, and many other new aspects, all make it necessary for careful attention to details and coordination of different partners roles. Things like training of workers who do the work at new plants put up by suppliers like Vought Aircraft of Dallas and Alenia Aeronautica of Italy, in this case in Charleston, S.C., were inadequate. This had the effect of compounding problems Boeing already has in shortage of aluminium and titanium fasteners to assemble the different parts. Based on this report the unveiling of the Dreamliner on July 8, before 15,000 invited guests, was probably a bad idea, as much of the plane under the shiny covers was a mess. idea

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The close ties developed in the postwar years between Japan and Boeing. Japanese suppliers supplied 16% of the 767 model in 1982, growing to 21% in 1995. By 2011 with the 787 Dreamliner Japan's role had increased to 35%. ANA and JAL almost exclusively use Boeing planes, shutting out Airbus from the Japanese market. New upstart airlines are beginning to order from Airbus. The Japanese government also supports suppliers of Boeing in Japan. Employment is also a consideration as 43% of employment in Japan's aviation industry is linked to Boeing. The battery on the Dreamliner 787 is supplied by Kyoto based GS Yuasa Corp., and Kanto Aircraft Instrument Company near Tokyo makes the circuit board that runs the battery. Battery related fires have led to grounding of 17 Dreamliners operated by ANA and 7 Dreamliners of JAL airlines in Japan. All Nippon Airways is the first and largest operator of the new Dreamliner aircraft. So tight is the relationship that Airbus has in total about 44 planes flying in Japan, with newer airlines such as Skymark expected to use the new Airbus A380 superjumbo aircraft in 2014. ANA and JAL typically do not bargain hard on pricing with Boeing because this supports Japanese manufacturers. ANA managers say it was involved in the design of the jet, including the use of a durable Japan made paint. In the 1990's Boeing studied Japanese manufacturing methods to improve work on its assembly lines, which goes on till today....

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The head of the Boeing 777 airplane program, Larry Loftis, is made the new head of the 787 Dreamliner program. The change is designed to improve the production timing of the Dreamliner program, which has suffered repeated delays and is three years behind the original plan. Boeing has a backlog of 850 customer orders on the Dreamliner.

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The engineering changes in the design of the 787 Boeing Dreamliner provide an experience in humidity levels, altitude levels, turbulence, and roominess that is not dramaically different but enough to provide a noticeably better experience. Nobumi Matsuda, who runs an eye clinic in Japan and is studying the eye health of pilots, says he expected more, that humidity levels were not enough. Boeing used the construction of the body of the jet using super strong plastics instead of aluminium, to create a small increase in humidity levels. The humidity level inside the Dreamlier is 10-15% compared to 4-7% in other airplanes. By pressurizing the cabin to lower altitudes there is a 6% increase in oxygen absorbed at the 6000 feet level at which it is set than the 8000 feet level, according to Boeing. Michael Grepo, a computer systems expert taking the Tokyo to Frankfurt flight on ANA, says he experienced an improvement in breathing, dryness of the nose and contact lens, but it was not a huge difference. Thorsten Hoffmann, a German sales executive says he did not notice till he got off the flight, when he realized that he felt good, had slept better. Othe changes are big overhead bins. The large windows are supposed to reduce motion sickness and provide great views on takeoff and landing. Boeing says "while it can be argued that the passenger comfort improvements are incremetal, the combination of so many improvements in one airplane is revolutionary in our opinion." At the customer level these are proving less revolutinary and more of a subtle type that add up to a noticeable improvement. Boeing now has on its hands a remarkable sales success, with 870 Dreamliners ordered by 59 of the world's airlines. A big factor from the airlines point of view is high fuel prices. The 787 is 20% more fuel efficient than the comparable size Boeing 767....

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S7 is one of the largest private airlines in Russia and its purchases of Dreamliners and other Boeing planes show that it is planning for a large expansion in the Russian airlines passenger market as Russia continues its rapid growth, alongside China and India.

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Boeing's improvements in quality and production processes for the Dreamliner, as the first Dreamliner which will not need major additional work before delivery comes off the production line. Costs of production have reached the point to where Boeing is losing $100 million on each plane sold. Ony 300 small assembly tasks remained, closer to the 200 that is the company's goal, and improvement over the 6000 additional small assembly tasks remaining in the early versions. The Everett, Washington plant now can make a 787 Dreamliner plane every 6-7 days. It costs Boeing $242 million to make each plane, and it sells them for $113 million according to UBS analysts. Boeing will have invested about $20 billion in the Dreamliner by 2014, when analysts say it should turn a profit.

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Boeing brings back engineering experts from its past to help bring the Dreamliner project back to shape. The head of the Boeing Commercial Airplane Business, has brought back 8 retired executives back into the fold by forming a Senior Advisory Group. Joe Sutter, 89 years old, is one of the engineeers from Boeing's past that criticized the outsourcing of key parts for the Dreamliner- one of the problems that put Boeing behind schedule by 2 years. Sutter led the design team for the 747 jumbo jet, so he has a legendary reputation. His point- there better be a lot of Boeing people looking at the suppliers to make sure things are done right.

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The Boeing Dreamliner is a big advance from all other airplanes both in terms of fuel efficiency and technology. The Dreamliner is expected to be 20% cheaper to operate than other jets currently in operation. It seats 210 to 290 people and can handle the longer routes such as New York to Tokyo better than existing aircraft.

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Efforts to achieve cost reduction on the Boeing Dreamliner and improve profitability. If Boeing used unit cost accounting or the difference between current sales and costs for each product delivered, the commercial jet division would show a loss of $69 million for the first 9 months of 2013.

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Boeing's 787 Dreamliner program has gathered 710 airplane orders estimated at $100 billion. Boeing's backlog or airplane orders is at $224 billion. Boeing's errors in executing the program including poor management of suppliers. Hundreds of experts have been sent to suppliers to get the program back on track. See problems that Airbus had with the huge jet Airbus was building.

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The National Transportation Safety Board's findings show the fire on a Japan Airlines Boeing Dreamliner 787 at Boston's Logan International Airport was caused by multiple short circuits in one of the battery's eight cells which touched off "an uncontrolled chemical reaction at high temperatures."

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Issues Boeing has with its Dreamliner 787 aircraft have left the company with $25 billion in aircraft inventory.

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Production delays, outsourcing issues and other problems are now hurting Boeing with cancellation of orders as airlines with lower profits in today's economic uncertainty are unable to take advantage of the new fuel efficient 787's in timely manner. Quantas first placed its order for upto 115 Dreamliners in 2005, and it hoped to reduce fuel costs with the 20% more fuel efficient Dreamliners than its 767 planes, which it hoped to retire. 28 Dreamliners were to be delivered by the end of 2011. This never happened as Boeing ran into production problems and only 17 were delivered to all airlines by September 2011. With the global economic uncertainty and slowdown Quantas is predicting a 90% drop in pretax profits for the fiscal year ending in June 2012 to A$50 million. With the situation changed Quantas decided to change the order by cancelling the orders for the larger 787-9 Dreamliner and keep the order for the 15 smaller 787-8 jets to save $8.5 billion. This follows a change made by China Eastern Airlines to cancel orders for 24 787s and buy smaller single aisle 737s for domestic flights. As a result Boeing's total orders stand at 824 in mid 2012, with only 7 new orders since 2007. Boeing says it needs to sell at least 1100 Dreamliners for the 787 program to be profitable. Its own forecast is for sales of an additional 2700 small twin aisle jets like the 787 between 2012 and 2031, with Boeing getting half of the market. The larger longer range 787-9 model will start delivery in 2014 and another version for more capacity on shorter routes the 787-10 is being discussed. Both programs Boeing's 787 Dreamliner and the competing Airbus A-350 program have suffered a series of production problems, outsourcing issues and delays in recent years. ...

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Walt Gillette started at Boeing in 1964. He has been behind major advances in most of Boeing's planes- from the Dreamliner 787, 747, 737, 767. Gillette was the inspiration behind the use of twin engines for long haul flights, with the 767 wide body twin engine aircraft. He also helped solve problems related to putting powerful engines on the wings of a 737, using analytical methods called (CFD) Computational Fluid Dynamics. The studies led to using five parameters in a new combination that remains a trade secret at Boeing. The Dreamliner is his greatest achievement. What amazes Gillette is the huge advances in air travel, with about 600,000 people travelling around the world in Boeing planes on a single day. "I wanted to work on something that benefits the world," says Gillette.

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Airbus and Boeing learned a lot from the cost overruns, manufacturing delays, outsourcing issues and other problems in the development and manufacturing of the Dreamliner and the Airbus 350. This is changing the way the two companies approach manufacturing processes for newer complex models of planes.

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Boeing reports a third annual loss in a row. As production problems and delivery delays for the Dreamliner 787 Boeing cost an additional $4.5 billon in the final quarter of 2021. Of this $3.5 billion is to compensate customers for the delays, and abnormal production costs forecast to be double than earlier estimated. Boeing expects deliveries to start in April and sees losses as behind it once deliveries start.