Posted on 11/13/2019 6:06:24 AM PST by daniel1212
From sloppy work to blown deadlines to deadly failures, the company has lost its way. It needs tough love — in the form of Congressional investigations....
Taken together, the problems with the 737 MAX, the 787 Dreamliner, the KC-46 Pegasus, the NASA Starliner, and the Space Launch System suggest systemic organizational and cultural failures that the company, unaided, appears incapable of solving...
The deadly failures in the 737 MAX program alone suggest major cultural and organizational problems at the company. Though the loss of almost 350 passengers in two crashes have prompted internal investigations, media scrutiny, and an admission by CEO Dennis Muilenberg to the Senate Commerce Committee that “we made mistakes,” we still don’t entirely understand why Boeing did not fully explain the implications of its new MCAS flight-control system to the FAA and forced through a rapid approval of the aircraft’s airworthiness. We do know that superiors in the company neither recognized potentially catastrophic problems nor heeded subordinates’ concerns about them...
The 737 MAX is not the only recent Boeing airliner that has encountered major problems. In 2013, battery fires led the FAA to ground the entire 787 Dreamliner fleet, the first time the agency had given such an order in almost 40 years. The Dreamliner soon returned to flight, but recent reports show that its woes may not be over. Earlier this month, a whistleblower told the BBC that Boeing ignored problems that could cause a quarter of the planes’ emergency oxygen systems to fail. The engineer said this was done in an effort to speed deliveries of the 787 amid a “culture of meeting targets and cost-cutting.”
On the military side, Boeing’s KC-46 Pegasus aerial refueling tanker is $3 billion over budget, three years behind schedule, and still has technical challenges whose repair bill has been estimated at $300 million by the Government Accountability Office. These include problems with the remote vision system needed to operate the refueling boom – the 767 variant’s raison d’etre!
Then there are the tools and other debris that Air Force maintainers began to find inside the walls, floors, and wings of delivered aircraft. The service acquisitions chief halted deliveries the following month, allowed them to restart in March, then halted them again after more debris was found.
Meanwhile, the existing fleet is currently banned from carrying cargo and passengers until faulty cargo restraints are fixed. These delays mean the KC-46 is now slated to fly its first combat missions no sooner than 2022 – eleven years after Boeing was selected over rivals to build the tanker. All this suggests a deeper problem with Boeing’s commitment to quality and a continued disregard for the potential risk to our men and women in uniform—unfathomable for a company like this....
the company recently withdrew from the competition to replace the Minuteman III, likely preventing the Air Force from using competition to reduce the cost of its next ICBM.
Boeing space systems have also been problematic...The SLS’s first launch, already three years late, may yet be delayed until 2021...
this is not a partisan issue. Sens. Tammy Duckworth, D-Illinois; Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut; and Ted Cruz, R-Texas; have all criticized Boeing’s leaders in the aftermath of the 737 MAX disasters. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Mississippi, said the executives appeared to approach the recent hearings with “a disturbing level of casualness and flippancy.”
I think the downhill slide began when that idiot Phil Condit moved HQ to Chicago....of all unchristly places.. because his wife was enamored with the Gold Coast.
Part of the stated goals in moving to Chicago was specifically to NOT be attached to any one division or production facility.
“From what I read , among other issue, lack of info on how to deal with the problem was a problem.”
Excellent article you linked to.
I fault Boeing for making two angle of attack sensors an option (the 2nd one being an option). Perhaps Boeing and the FAA thought when MCAS got confused the pilot should be able to fly the plane manually. A pilot friend of mine says that’s a super-important thing for pilots to know.
I read elsewhere that one of the failing angle of attack sensors was a non-Boeing part.
Wow! Boeing has sold 5000 of those planes!
Yep. And it’s why this old white guy got sacked at the defense contractor I’d been at for 30 years. Exemplary record for all those years but I had to go so they could keep more women and minorities. They didn’t hide that fact.
“They made the move because the CEO’s paramour (who was also his underling) had relatives near Chicago that she wanted to be near. Soon after the move was complete, the affair was revealed and both were sent packing...and his successors were left holding the bag.”
Another case of failed oversight by the Board of Directors. Too many corporations have boards stuffed with friends of the CEO instead of true watchdogs. Corporate relocations are costly - a huge cash outlay and the loss of many experienced employees who opt not to relocate. Rarely do relocations have a net benefit for the organization. Board should not be allowing CEO’s to relocate a headquarters unless the financial payback is definable and short term.
Akin to the viability of O-rings on a booster rocket to seal at low temperatures? Risks must be taken in varying degrees in most any activity, but when the odds are negative and not worth the risk and unnecessary, then saying "no" is warranted, yet can be hard when the pressure is on.
Employment based on skin color is racist, which is why you were let go, but it is sanctioned as being necessary by those who charge those who oppose such racism as being "racist." But when it comes to gender, what you feel you are is what you are: Doctor’s signature no longer required for gender-neutral license
Sales dept and numbers guys took over from engineers.
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