Boeing and the FAA agreed upon a protocol in which six key performance indicators of quality are monitored monthly and govern production rate increases for the company. Boeing has been able to meet its quality requirements at rate 38 for several months, and the company and FAA are reviewing whether to increase that rate to 42 per month.Â
With the performance numbers in the green zone for the requisite number of months, it should be a perfunctory decision to enable the rate increase, unless the government shutdown gets in the way.Â
The FAA has just restored an element of Boeing’s production certificate that had been withheld after the two 737 MAX crashes, enabling Boeing to take back the final inspection process for completed aircraft to enable the issuance of a certificate of airworthiness and deliveries to customers. With that authority back in the hands of Boeing, that indicates that the FAA has regained confidence in Boeing’s inspection processes, and should bode well for the planned increase from 38 to 42 units.
The production rate would stay at 42 units and increase to 47 or 48 in six months, and then to 52-54 in another six months. At that pace, Boeing should increase its production to 58-60 737 MAX units in 2027.
Certification of the MAX 7 and 10
