In 2001 as Boeing began to think about outsourcing, a Boeing Engineer pointed out; "“it is necessary for the prime contractor to provide on-site quality, supplier-management, and sometimes technical support. If this is not done, the performance of the prime manufacturer can never exceed the capabilities of the least proficient of the suppliers. These costs do not vanish merely because the work itself is out-of-sight.” - Dr. L J Hart - Smith

Boeing did not plan to provide for such on-site support for its suppliers.

If this sounds a lot like a MD screw up, where costs were cut until the problems were discovered by the operators (ne' MD11) it is the same pattern. Underspend on development and over pay for fixing it on the ramp.

The SC issues started when aft fuselage barrels were outsourced to Vought, who did not have a single aerospace engineer on staff. They had a couple of PE's. The fuselage barrels were built to the wrong dimensions and were unusable. Vought blamed Alenia in Italy for supplying incorrect sub assemblies. Alenia is also involved in the "abandoned" 787's which apparently assembled despite some of the inner structures being shipped incomplete from Italy. Now those structures are inaccessible for repair. Boeing had to buy the facility and take over production themselves to ensure compliance with the design specs.

Harpers reported Boeing's design budget for the 787 was 5 Billion. It has over run that figure by 12 Billion. I don't know how many 787's they must sell to break even. eh - correction- over 32 Billion and counting ....