While the aerospace giant has been seeking assets to unload or consolidate since 1998, its streamlining process has zeroed in on non-essential parts fabrication of late, with plans to sell off plants and consolidate parts work. "We tend to be moving away from detailed parts fabrication. Our skills are integration and assembly as opposed to making clips and brackets and small parts," Condit said in an interview at Boeing's Seattle headquarters. In June, Boeing announced plans to sell off a vastly underutilized plant in St. Louis employing 1,700 people making components for its military jet factory there. Last week the company said it would cut 900 jobs over two years at its Huntington Beach, Calif. facility, shifting Delta rocket work now done there to other plants in Pueblo, Colo., and Decatur, Alabama.

After buying McDonnell Douglas for $16.3 billion 1997 Boeing posted its first full year loss in 50 years and has since struggled to rebuild its profits even as commercial airplane deliveries hit a record 620 in 1999.

-- The Wall Street Journal