How Boeing reframed its supply chain to build the dreamliner

Consider a frame change in manufacturing which has been very substantial. Boeing, in building airplanes, has switched from suppliers to partners, from hundreds of suppliers to maybe a hundred partners. And as this quote from The Economist says, "The difference is not just quantity, it's quality. It's the nature of the relationship." There now is a joint responsibility for a project as opposed to limited responsibility of only delivering the specs that were required with Boeing having overall responsibility. No frame is perfect and what Boeing has found out is that, this shared responsibility places a great deal of importance on the success of each partner. And there are cases where, if one crucial partner fails, they also deliver in terms of quality or timeliness, the entire project suffers. So, the shift from the supplier frame to the partner frame by and large has been positive, but no frame is perfect. There are some downsides, and Boeing has experienced those.