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Boeing commercial airplanes quality chief to retire in December
American Journal of Transportation (AJOT) ^ | 11/11/2024 | David Shepardson

Posted on 11/12/2024 7:28:19 AM PST by T.B. Yoits

Boeing's head of quality for commercial airplanes, Elizabeth Lund, who has spearheaded the planemaker's improvement plans, will retire in December, the company said on Monday.

A 33-year veteran of Boeing, Lund had been named in February to the new position of senior vice president of quality for its commercial planes, after the crisis sparked by the Jan. 5 mid-air panel blowout of a new Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9.

In June, the National Transportation Safety Board said Boeing violated investigation rules when Lund provided non-public information to media and speculated about possible causes of the blowout. The agency barred Boeing from receiving information produced during its probe.

Federal Aviation Administration chief Mike Whitaker took the unprecedented step in January of preventing Boeing from expanding 737 MAX production until he is satisfied it has made significant quality improvements.

Lund will be replaced by Doug Ackerman, who has served as vice president of Supply Chain and Fabrication Quality and has been involved in the quality plan.

Also in October, the Transportation Department's Office of Inspector General criticized FAA oversight of Boeing, saying the agency lacked an effective system to oversee the planemaker's individual manufacturing facilities.

An FAA audit of Boeing completed in February found 97 incidents of noncompliance, spanning "issues in Boeing’s manufacturing process control, parts handling and storage, and product control."

Whitaker said recently that Boeing's improvements in safety culture might take three to five years to implement. In June, he acknowledged that the agency was "too hands-off" in its oversight of Boeing prior to January.

Whitaker spoke to Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg last week on the planemaker's plans to resume 737 MAX production following a 53-day strike.

(Excerpt) Read more at ajot.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS: boeing; lund; quality; retire
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Elizabeth Lund was put in the position less than a year ago after the hatch blowout over Portland, and by June; In June, the National Transportation Safety Board said Boeing violated investigation rules when Lund provided non-public information to media and speculated about possible causes of the blowout. The agency barred Boeing from receiving information produced during its probe.
1 posted on 11/12/2024 7:28:19 AM PST by T.B. Yoits
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To: T.B. Yoits

Oh, Boeing had a quality chief?


2 posted on 11/12/2024 7:32:29 AM PST by Obadiah
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To: T.B. Yoits

Anyone out there have Ms Lund’s background in items that actually involve engineering quality? Or did the fact that she could spell “quality” ...er...qualify her? No insult meant to females - my wife has more tech credentials than anyone in the Biden clown show.


3 posted on 11/12/2024 7:33:48 AM PST by Da Coyote (H)
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To: Obadiah
Oh, Boeing had a quality chief?

And we had a border czar...

4 posted on 11/12/2024 7:34:00 AM PST by 1Old Pro
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To: 1Old Pro

And the CofE had an archbishop...


5 posted on 11/12/2024 7:34:45 AM PST by mewzilla (Never give up; never surrender!)
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To: 1Old Pro

Retire in December? They should pull a Joe Paterno on him.


6 posted on 11/12/2024 7:35:23 AM PST by DIRTYSECRET
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To: T.B. Yoits

Quality is not that hard as long as you have comprehensive bulletproof instructions and then instill a culture of discipline in the workforce to actually follow those instructions consistently and in aviation maintenance that is not negotiable.

Deviation from that process framework in aviation can be and historically has resulted in deadly consequences.

I’m surprised something worse hasn’t happened under this person’s watch.

She probably should have resigned at least a year ago.


7 posted on 11/12/2024 7:36:32 AM PST by V_TWIN (America...so great even the people that hate it refuse to leave!)
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To: Da Coyote

According to the Boeing website: “She has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Tulsa and a master’s degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering from the University of Missouri.”


8 posted on 11/12/2024 7:37:13 AM PST by Blurb2350 (posted from my 1500-watt blow dryer)
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To: T.B. Yoits
The agency barred Boeing from receiving information produced during its probe.

Translation: If we find out what happened and how, WE AREN'T GOING TO TELL YOU!

The Big Message: And if you don't fix it we are going to punish you out of business!!!

9 posted on 11/12/2024 7:37:37 AM PST by null and void (4B - improving the gene pool one lonely night at a time...)
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To: All

Elizabeth Lund, who has spearheaded the planemaker's improvement plans, will retire in December......a 33-year veteran of Boeing, Lund had been named in February to the new position of senior vice president of quality for its commercial planes, after the crisis sparked by the Jan. 5 mid-air panel blowout of a new Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9.

10 posted on 11/12/2024 7:37:44 AM PST by Liz ( )
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To: V_TWIN

It’s what happens when you replace engineers with bean counters.


11 posted on 11/12/2024 7:38:04 AM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: T.B. Yoits

All of them?


12 posted on 11/12/2024 7:39:17 AM PST by bgill
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To: Da Coyote

1987 BSME University of Tulsa
1990 MSME University of Missouri-Columbia

Given the BS date, probably 60 years old or so.


13 posted on 11/12/2024 7:40:24 AM PST by Rio
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To: T.B. Yoits

This must be an old story. Boeing’s chief of quality control obviously retired years ago.


14 posted on 11/12/2024 7:42:41 AM PST by Mr. Lucky
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To: T.B. Yoits

Lately, the terms “quality’ and “Boeing” haven’t been compatible.


15 posted on 11/12/2024 7:46:23 AM PST by Signalman
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To: V_TWIN
These larger corporations are outsourcing manufacturing work to remove costs, including quality control.

In addition, quality control itself is outsourced. Those quality control inspectors? Yeah, they work for a small corporation who'll declare bankruptcy in a heartbeat in order to maintain a firewall between the victims and the parent corporation.

Once the parent company washes their hands of responsibility for quality, the problems inevitably arise. "We didn't make that component, that other company did."

I witnessed this firsthand decades ago. The suits sat across the conference room table insisting the quality control problems weren't their fault but was instead were the responsibility of the third-world company they outsourced the work to.

Our team was having none of it. "We wrote the purchase order to YOU. YOU were the one who imported it and YOU sold it to us under YOUR label."

They still didn't want to hear it. We were talking to robots programmed by lawyers.

16 posted on 11/12/2024 7:48:37 AM PST by T.B. Yoits
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To: Liz
"There is nothing wrong with Boeing's quality."


17 posted on 11/12/2024 7:53:13 AM PST by Yo-Yo (Is the /Sarc tag really necessary? Pray for President Biden: Psalm 109:8)
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To: Obadiah

>> Oh, Boeing had a quality chief?

Apparently so, but not a good quality chief.

Actually it looks like they had more of a quality squaw.


18 posted on 11/12/2024 7:53:27 AM PST by Nervous Tick ("First the Saturday people, then the Sunday people...": ISLAM is the problem!)
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To: Yo-Yo

ROFL!


19 posted on 11/12/2024 7:53:45 AM PST by Nervous Tick ("First the Saturday people, then the Sunday people...": ISLAM is the problem!)
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To: Yo-Yo

Perfect, the exact image that went through my mind when I saw the original picture.

Quality in Boeing, never.


20 posted on 11/12/2024 7:57:03 AM PST by Mouton (A 150MT hit may not solve our problems now but is a good start. )
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