Hi Jim. Yes, I well recall the exchange here. I posted a Baseline Magazine article at one point, you may recall, highlighting a huge setback for Airbus. It was not due to materials or fabrication issues, but instead it was due to a project management CAD software glitch caused by an error in software version control. The error wasn't caught until the production phase, at which time timelines were already in jeopardy or experiencing overruns, while a significant amount of work had to be undone and then redone. A complete cluster-join, in another words. I'll have to dig deeper in order to recall the types of issues you were alluding to though. Unless they are one and the same, and we're only expressing different aspects of it by using different framing and terms, would do you have a pointer to those you could post? Here's an account of the issue I remember best:
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The Promise and Peril of PLM: Boeing's Dream, Airbus' Nightmare
By Doug Bartholomew
2007-02-05
An Urgent Message
For Kevin Fowler, Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2006, was another long day at Boeing. As the vice president of systems integration, processes and tools for the 787 Dreamliner, the company's first completely new airliner since the early 1990s, it's his job to ensure that all the pieces come together smoothly. As part of those duties, he was leaving the company's offices in Everett, Wash., to catch a flight to France, where he would pay a visit to Labinal, the wiring supplier for the 787. On the way to the airport, an urgent e-mail landed in his BlackBerry.
The message was from his boss, 787 program chief Mike Bair, and he wanted to know if Fowler had heard the news out of Europe.
Half a world away, Airbus chief executive Christian Streiff had delivered a speech announcing that the company's A380 superjumbo would be delayed by at least two years. The delay and resulting changes to the program were expected to cost Boeing's fiercest competitor as much as $6 billion in lost profits, by Airbus' own reckoning. The cause, Streiff said, was due to compatibility issues with the sophisticated computer-aided design software used by engineers to architect the A380.
Cont.: baselinemag.com
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