Boeing announced today that it now expects to deliver its first 787 Dreamliner to customer All Nippon Airways sometime in the third quarter of 2011.  Originally, first customer ship had previously slipped to early this quarter after numerous delays. This news comes after the in-flight incident of an electrical fire and power failure that occurred on one of the 787 test flight aircraft in November.

There has been much speculation as to how much impact the November incident would have on a program that has suffered numerous delays and supply chain snafus.  Boeing indicated that four of the eight designated testing aircraft will resume governmental test flights this week.  Further details regarding the 787 customer delivery schedule are expected to be part of Boeing’s fourth quarter earnings briefing scheduled for the end of January.

We certainly hope that Boeing can once and for all maintain a consistent airline customer delivery program for the long awaited 787.

We have had the opportunity to review the broad spectrum of readership statistics for 2010, and we would like to sincerely thank all of our Supply Chain Matters readers for their loyal following..

In 2010, this blog experienced:

• A 64 percent increase in visits since the beginning of the year.  In 2010, there were close to 250,000 visits to this blog and over 3 million site hits.
• A 56 percent increase in unique (first time) visitors since the beginning of the year.  We welcome each of the nearly 100,000 new visitors to this web site in 2010.
• Nearly 52,000 search engine links referencing Supply Chain Matters content.

We have also received a lot of kind complimentary feedback regarding the quality of the commentary published in Supply Chain Matters along with the broad array of supply chain cross-functional topics that we elect to provide in our ongoing commentary and insights. This has led to follow-on individual consulting and other incremental business for our consulting and research business.

Again, thanks to all our readers for your loyal following, and keep the feedback coming.  We also extend a shout out with sincere thanks to all of our blog sponsors in 2010 and trust that readers had the opportunity to view each of their capabilities.  They have each demonstrated a commitment and have embraced the power of blogs as a new medium for global supply chain related thought leadership.  Please take the time to review their capabilities.

If you have interest in becoming a Supply Chain Matters sponsor, and would like to know more about our other services, please send an email to: info<at>supply-chain-matters<dot>com or fill in our sponsorship inquiry form which can be accessed on the top menu.

Bob Ferrari, Executive Editor

One of the most visible business news stories this week reflects around the state visit of China’s President Hu Jintao to Washington.  There is, as always, speculation as to the various discussion items involved in this visit, some with longer-term supply and value-chain implications.   As is often the case, there are many succinct agendas but it is rather important to take a step back and view the broader landscape of recent events, and what strategic directions China will take as an emerging economic superpower.

We would like to alert our Supply Chain Matters readers to a timely editorial series, China Shapes the World,  running this week in the Financial Times.  The series provides lots of insightful opinion, commentary and data, information that we believe senior sourcing and procurement executives should absorb and monitor in the coming months.

In one of today’s feature opinion articles, A strategy to straddle the planet, a global map notes the amount of China’s influence in foreign trade for specific countries.  While we often tend to focus solely on the U.S. number (14.3 percent), the impact for South Korea (22.8 percent), Japan (20.4 percent), Australia (20.6 percent), Brazil (14 percent), South Africa (13.1 percent) are all profound indicators of value-chain influence. The key takeaways from this well written article is that in this new period of post-recession recovery, China wants to forge a new phase of globalization where financial, commercial, and perhaps political forces all converge on Beijing.  There are trade relationships being developed that move beyond being a low-cost sourcing manufacturing center to the production of more sophisticated products such as capital equipment, high-speed rail, alternative energy and other infrastructure. China has also embarked on a campaign to insure adequate sourcing of key strategic materials, and recently to diversify foreign exchange reserves away from the U.S. dollar.  The risks of potential backlash from other countries is also discussed.

A separate opinion column penned by Gideon Rachman notes that in the aftermath of the financial crisis, China feels that time is on its side, and has not been exhibiting a new assertiveness in confronting other countries, such as the U.S.,  in rebuffing demands for aggressive climate change, more accelerated currency re-valuation of the renminbi, or the rise of China’s military capabilities.

Included in our Supply Chain Matters Top Ten Predictions for Global Supply Chains in 2011 is a prediction noting that will be much more attention paid to outsourcing strategies and to analyzing all the pertinent factors motivating these strategies.  These would include foreign currency shifts, concerns for IP Protection, and other factors.  At the same time, China itself continues to provide a huge market of opportunity for many years to come, and the question is how open this market will ultimately become for foreign companies.

Senior supply chain and procurement supply executives are wise to keep a very keen and continuous eye on China’s moves in the international arena.  China is quickly becoming the new force in global influence and this week’s visit to the U.S. is yet another milestone in that journey.

Bob Ferrari