Boeing and quality – progress but not there yet

Boeing has been in the process of a turnaround in quality, which reached its nadir when bolts were not replaced in a door plug, resulting in an explosive decompression on an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 in January 2024.  Since then, Boeing has replaced its CEO, who has taken decisive actions to improve processes and quality at the firm.  But that process has primarily been two steps forward and one step back.  Despite the best efforts, a decade of loose quality practices will still “come home to roost” at Boeing’s door.

737 MAX production

There has been considerable progress with the MAX program since the management change.  The FAA and Boeing

agreed on several key performance indicators associated with manufacturing quality.  Those KPIs will objectively determine when the company will be capable of increasing production rates for the MAX from the current FAA limit of 38 per month.  Boeing has been making slow progress but has not yet approached the current maximum rate, which it expects to achieve by year-end.  We don’t expect Boeing to reach the 38-per-month limit until the fourth quarter of 2025 at the earliest.

Certification of the MAX 7 and MAX 10

Boeing has also requested a certification exception for the MAX 7 and MAX 10 models.  That request has been controversial, with opposition from pilots unions, as the component in question, the Stall Management Yaw Damper (“SMYD”) feeds the third “synthetic” angle-of-attack sensor that works with the MCAS system, a contributing factor to the two fatal MAX crashes in 2017 and 2018.  Without that exemption, Boeing cannot complete the two new models on schedule for late 2025 and mid-2026.