Boeing HQ
Today’s news about Boeing focuses on the restart of the 737 MAX production line in Renton. The aircraft that had already been in process were essentially completed last week, and we’ve been reporting their first flight in our daily tracking model, accessible here to subscribers. Since Friday, the new builds are inducting new fuselages that will be completed using the new and improved Boeing safety system and protocols to ensure high production quality.
While the first steps are a start, the company and the FAA recognize that there is a long way to go to restore a culture of quality first at Boeing, which had eroded steadily since the McDonnell Douglas merger in 1997. With 27 years having passed since the cultural turning point, it is difficult to find the “old timers” who experienced the prior culture of quality and pride in engineering that once permeated the company.
Changing the culture will be a long-term task for the company, and will not happen overnight. We’ve already seen their internal safety czar tout progress only to be let down again by missing bolts earlier this year with the MAX door panel blowout. This could be a two steps forward, one step backwards process until the safety and quality processes can become cultural norms.
In the interim, many small suppliers are waiting until the last minute to staff-up and restart component production, as they have been hard hit during the last few years. The imperative to deliver more and faster was tempered by the pandemic, groundings, and the strike, making their production charts look like strange camels with up and down humps. Many are no longer taking risks, as one mom-and-pop supplier to Boeing explains.
Boeing also just announced that it plans to increase 787 production to 10 aircraft per month by 2026, up from the current level of 5 per month and the planned level of 7 per month in 2025. This comes despite new whistleblower testimony about parts irregularities in Charleston, where the 787 is assembled, as well as on the MAX line. The new safety and quality improvements also need to be installed in the South Carolina facility, which did not come to a full stop since this plant is non-union. Will implementation on the fly be successful? If past is prologue, that will be a difficult task.
Finally, FAA Administrator Michael Whitaker will resign effective inauguration day, after serving just over a year in that role. He recognized and has been addressing the lax FAA oversight of Boeing, leaving the question as to whether a Trump-appointed successor would continue those practices. Mr. Trump has spoken in the past about easing government regulation, which raises the potential specter of a philosophical reversal. We will need to wait and see to assess the impact on Boeing.
Links to key news items follow:
- How Boeing restarted its 737 production line – Inc.
- Inside Boeing’s struggle to make its best-selling plane again – Yahoo
- Boeing puts safety and quality before speed in 737 MAX production – Financial Mail
- Boeing blues: a mom-and-pop supplier feels the pain – Reuters via Yahoo
- Boeing to increase 787 production to 10 per month by 2026 – Yahoo
- FAA head to step down, allowing Trump to pick successor – PBS
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