On Friday, Boeing announced a 500% increase in employee safety-related submissions for products and services in the first two months of 2024 compared to the previous year.
The surge was highlighted in Boeing’s annual safety report, released May 24. According to the manufacturer, the increase in submissions followed the Jan. 5 midair door blowout incident of an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 jet. Since the event, Boeing has actively encouraged its employees to report any safety, quality and compliance issues related to its products and services.
“We are entrusted with the safety of all those who fly on, use, operate and maintain our products. Our actions are focused on making further improvements to ensure safety, compliance and conformance of our products and services, without compromise,” said Mike Delaney, Boeing Chief Aerospace Safety Officer. “Our commitment is to never forget our responsibility to make sure every action and decision bring lasting improvements to the safety and quality of our products and services.”
Per Bloomberg, Boeing said it will convene representatives from the company, the Federal Aviation Administration and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union to review safety concerns employees have raised through its Speak Up program.
Additionally, Boeing is expected to submit a 90-day plan to the FAA in the coming week, outlining corrective actions to address quality control issues within its factories.
Where is the SMS?
Matt you’ve obviously got an opinion on your own question. Let us know what that is. From your question it sounds like you believe that a safety management system would been effective had one been used like SMS is supposed to be used.
Boeing’s annual safety report is indeed good news – their employees are finally speaking up about questionable practices, like a wall of silence finally crumbling. This transparency allows Boeing to find and address potential problems in the future.
However, there’s a downside. This surge in safety reports, while positive for long-term safety, might raise concerns. It’s like opening a can of worms – these reports could reveal problems that existed before but weren’t reported, raising eyebrows about the safety of Boeing’s in-service fleet. Questions linger: How far back do these issues go, and what other products might be affected?
It is a two sided sword but had to be brought out for exposure. There will in all likelyhood be issues uncovered but there is little other choice. When decisions were made in the past hopefully they were examined by competent people and assessed as ALARP (as low as reasonably practical/possible) There will be dissent and discussion before the issues fade and remediation has been effected. What other route can be followed?
Boeing’s website shows the 500% increase and some year-by-year bar graphs but no numbers. With allegations of Boeing management pressuring employees to push along questionable work and components, a 500% increase over last year’s reporting could have been 1 submission last year vs 5 submissions this year. How about presenting the actual number of submissions?
Also presented are percentages of ODA program employees – “authorized to perform certain functions on behalf of the FAA” – reporting “interference directed at them” of 12.1% in the last 12 months, down from 13.9% in 2022, with 66% ODA personnel reporting. Again, percentages. It’s not reasonable to assume the percentage holds true for the 34% who did not return their survey. If someone fears retaliation, they won’t provide bullets for management’s gun.
The safety executive’s report appears to display transparency but without real numbers, it’s still unclear.
Well duh, Boeing institutes a CYA program to encourage more comments, and what happens? They get more comments. This is a big nothing-burger.