Flying Away: How Airline Manufacturers Are Outsourcing American Jobs

Jose cantos

Professor Rockwell

COM 122

12/04/14

Flying Away: How Airline Manufacturers Are Outsourcing American Jobs Ever since Henry Ford installed his efficient “assembly line” in his automobile factory in 1913, the modern manufacturing practices in all industries were revolutionized. Industries realized that they could tackle bigger projects at half the cost and produce twice the amount of goods, and so, they very quickly adopted the assembly line model of manufacture. The idea was as simple as having multiple workers specialize in one specific part and then connect all those parts to make the final product. In recent decades, Aircraft manufacturers realized that they could get more work done, and at a fraction of the price, if they had

In the Aerospace industry, sometimes it is necessary to outsource to subcontractors because aircraft have many complex systems and there are companies that specialize in certain fields and have more experience so they can perform a better job than the original manufacturer. Problems arise when too many parts are outsourced and it becomes difficult to pay attention to detail and ensure that all workers are performing up to standards. In a recent scandal with Boeing during final assembly of their latest 787 Aircraft, the Aircraft parts that were manufactured in different parts of the world did not fit together and Boeing lost billions of dollars compensating for their mistakes as wells as delayed the project for a few more years. Their plan to save money and time backfired. Jim Albaugh, Boeings commercial Aviation chief said, “We gave work to people that had never really done this kind of technology before, and then we didn't provide the oversight that was necessary" (qtd. in Hiltzik). In the Aerospace industry, there is no room for error. By branching out to subcontractors around the world, we’re decreasing the quality of these

If the United States government and the Federal Aviation Administration continue to allow other countries to work on our American defense and commercial aircraft systems, we foreigners free insight into our systems and state of the art technologies, which also create the possibility of a security breach. In the article “Outsourcing Threatens U.S. Economy, Security” by George J. Kourpias, he acknowledges the fact that “The United States devotes a lot of attention (and money) to aerospace, but there is no coordination; no long-term vision.” In order for the United States to keep up with its major competitors in the Aerospace industry and also remain a world power, we need to keep major manufacturing projects in the United States and plan ahead for the future. America has always been known as a leading innovator when it comes to Aerospace engineering. In recent years, that title has slowly began to fade away as the U.S no longer manufactures its own aircraft but has other countries assemble and mass-produce them at a fraction of the