With new orders being announced virtually on a daily basis and Royal Jordanian the latest to sign up, Boeing has instigated the actual assembly of the lead aircraft. Rollout is due on Sunday 8 July, a date chosen to ensure that workers and their families can be amongst the first to see the new product.
As the 787 is put together from generally large sections manufactured all around the world, rather than many smaller pieces, traditional monument assembly tools are not necessary. Portable equipment, designed with ergonomics in mind, place the sometimes massive items in position and no overhead cranes are used to move any of the structure.
With 568 firm orders from 44 airlines, the 787 is the fastest-selling new aircraft in aviation history. The 787 production system was designed using lean manufacturing techniques in a simplified final assembly process.
"The 787 production system is the culmination of the lessons we've learned building previous airplanes," said 787 vice president of manufacturing and quality, Steve Westby.
"Using composites on the 787 airframe has a number of manufacturing advantages: we are able to build huge structure in just one piece, which means we essentially have six major end items coming together in final assembly - the forward, centre and aft fuselage sections, the wings, the horizontal stabilizer and the vertical fin."
Boeing says that although the first aircraft will take about seven weeks to build, the 787 team is looking to continuously improve flow time as production ramps up. Ultimately, a 787 will roll out of the factory every three days.