Bad parts delay Boeing 737 shipments

Boeing Co., the world's second- largest commercial planemaker, will delay deliveries of 737 model aircraft because of faulty parts and repair existing jets, hampering a recovery from a two-month machinists strike.

``It's a big deal,'' said Michel Merluzeau, an aviation consultant at G2 Solution in Kirkland, Washington. ``They're going to miss their production numbers by a huge margin this year.''

A Boeing supplier has been using bad nutplates -- inch-long fasteners that attach wiring and other components to the inside of the 737's body -- since August 2007, said Vicki Ray, a spokeswoman in Seattle for Chicago-based Boeing. The parts may be installed on 394 of the planes that Boeing built between August 2007 and October 2008, according to its Web site.

The delays for the 737, the world's most widely flown jet, complicates Boeing's effort to resume shipments after a strike by machinists idled factories for two months through Nov. 2, shaving more than $10 million a day from Boeing's profit. The world's second-largest commercial-plane maker, which was building more than 30 737s a month before the walkout, hasn't yet given customers a new timetable for their planes on order.

``We're still assessing our delivery schedule, so this is one of the many things we're factoring in as we start up our delivery line,'' Ray said.

Boeing is working with the Federal Aviation Administration on a plan to inspect and repair the affected planes that are already in use by airlines, she said.

``It's not an immediate safety-of-flight issue,'' Ray said. ``It's an issue that would potentially lead to early corrosion. The part itself is structurally fine.''

Spirit AeroSystems

The nutplates were made by one of three suppliers to Wichita, Kansas-based Spirit AeroSystems Holdings Inc., which builds the fuselages and sends them on trains for final assembly at Boeing's plant in Renton, Washington. About 30 percent of the nutplates -- or everything made by that one supplier, which Spirit declined to identify -- didn't have the cadmium coating they need to keep them from corroding the aluminum fuselage.

There are ``several thousand'' nutplates on each 737 fuselage, said Ken Evans, a Spirit spokesman. Spirit employees discovered the problem ``a couple of months ago'' and the company immediately suspended deliveries from that vendor and returned the ones in stock that weren't cadmium-coated, he said.

``We're working with our supplier to investigate the root cause of this issue to make sure it won't happen again,'' Evans said. Spirit is a former Boeing unit.

737 Backlog

The 737, which began flying in 1968, is used on short- and medium-range routes. The most recent models are valued at an average of $67.5 million at list prices and can hold from 110 to 189 passengers. Boeing has 2,299 737s on order, making up 62 percent of its total backlog through October.

``It really surprises me, because the 737 is such a well- oiled machine,'' Merluzeau said. ``At the same time, the supply chain worked well, because Spirit caught it and reported it to Boeing and it's being fixed.''

Boeing fell $1.45 to $42.52 yesterday in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares have dropped 45 percent this year.