Something is rotten at the storied Boeing Company. Yet again a variant of the 737 Max airplane was grounded after door plug opened up at the start of an Alaska Airlines flight. Further upon inspections several airplanes had loose bolts that hold on the door plug. The FAA immediately grounded 171 737Max9 airplanes. This follows previous groundings in 2021 for electrical problems and the 2019 grounding because of flight control problems that caused two crashes. Boeing CEO David Calhoun called the latest event "a mistake." It is far deeper than a mistake.
These quality control failures are not random, but rather a symptom of a a finance culture that no longer emphasizes engineering and manufacturing. Boeing used to pride itself on engineering and manufacturing excellence. That gave way after the 1997 McDonnell Douglas merger when a finance culture was embedded into every corner of the company. That included spinning off the Wichita, Kansas division as Spirit AeroSystems in 2005. It was Spirit who manufactured the fuselage that failed.
Given this systemic failure, it seems to me, that Boeing needs a culture transplant that begins at the top. The board should ease out the current leadership team and replace the bean counters with aeronautical, manufacturing, and quality assurance engineers. Further the company should amp up its quality control efforts at all of its Tier 1 suppliers.
To make such a program credible, Boeing should announce that it will suspend share buybacks and dividend increases until an independent panel has judged the culture transplant to be effective
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