As expected, the increased scrutiny of Boeing by the FAA and the company’s own internal quality checks have bogged down production and that will have a cascading effect on airlines waiting for new planes. Boeing is authorized by the FAA to make up to 38 new 737 MAX aircraft, but Reuters said it’s making only about a third of that. The production rate is determined by the number of first flights of new aircraft. It reported that consulting company Cirium Ascend counted 11 maiden flights in February and 13 in March. Meanwhile, Airbus is kicking an average of 46 A320neos out the door each month.
Boeing said it’s tightened up production of the planes and the reduction in output is the inevitable result. Among the measures is stopping the production line when completion of a task at one station is delayed. To keep things moving in the past, whatever job didn’t get done would be noted and it would be completed at a station further down the line.
The production cut has hit United Airlines to the point that it’s asking pilots to take unpaid leave in May. In fact, they can take the whole month off if they want to or take specified stretches of time off. They can also have a “blank schedule” for the month in which they can pick specific flights and trade pairings between themselves. A union memo says the flex time is only for May but there may be schedule juggling into the fall. “While the delivery issues surround our 787 and 737 fleets, the impact will affect other fleets as well,” the union said in a memo on Friday. “Program selection and duration is not known at this time.”
Build in “trust”, the rest will follow.
“More haste, less speed”. Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, late 1st and early 2nd centuries A.D. Yup, they had it all together then.
I don’t know about Boeing, but every time I noted an anomaly, in the code I was writing or the machine I was working on, and said to myself, “Hmm, I’m in the middle of this procedure. I’ll go back and fix that when I’m done”, it never ended well. It didn’t matter how many notes I made (especially those written in cranial tapioca) _something_ got missed. Dealing with anomalies in real time sure does slow down “progress”, but better to deliver something late, than something with a hidden flaw.
Well, if doing proper certified software development the defect would be recorded and tracked to final solution. All defects would have to be cleared before final testing.
No worries, Boeing’s got it under control…
Banner on the wall at a manufacturing facility where I worked in the 80s:
“If I don’t have time now to do it right, how will I find time to do it right later?”
Surprised this seems to be a new concept for Boeing.
Yup! An old high school Physics teacher used to quip whenever we asked for more time on our term assignments, “Never enough time to do it right the first time but always enough to do it over!
The AvWeb comments section sounds like an echo chamber. Even the people behind the counter at McDonald’s can say it’s all the CEO’s fault, just money grabbers. We can only hope that our military leaders don’t wilt and walk away as soon as the media and public turns against them.
Certainly if the FAA had a microscope on the Airbus production line they would also have a slower production rate. Has Airbus been audited? All it takes to record an audit failure is a single anomaly between the documented procedure of how something is done compared to the observed procedure.
“Boeing said it’s tightened up production of the planes and the reduction in output is the inevitable result.” Did Boeing say ‘reduction in output is the inevitable result’ or is that surmised by Russ. It’s entirely possible that the FAA does not have enough ‘monitors’ and is responsible for the majority of delays.
These are short articles with no depth and it’s an error to draw deep conclusions.
Well put. For all those who love bashing CEOs I would suggest they try out the job and see if they like it. Better yet, start their own company and try to survive one year in our current economic climate.
You’re questioning current economic climate survivability? I suppose that depends on where you’re getting your news but most indicators show the current economy to be strong.
There’s virtually no way to call an economy objectively strong anymore though, is there? Do you look at GDP? It includes government spending, so your “strong” GDP number could be an indication of borrowing too much which weakens the economy. Unemployment? Which one of the numbers do you use and how do you compare it with the old numbers measured differently and all by people working for the incumbents? Etc.
All I know is between inflation and the market I’m about a third down from before Covid, and most of it was definitely just bad decisions. It was bipartisan, too. And no, “your” side was no less bad, that’s just your bias. Doesn’t matter which side it is or was, either.
What I’m wondering is how anyone complains that big investment firms are investing in housing rather than in construction or manufacturing, and doesn’t realize the problem is we’ve made those other things bad businesses.
Looks like the breeze may have just blown over.
Boeing wrote the book on aerospace QA, and certainly do not need a government employee with zero industry experience telling them how to build aircraft. I’ve worked with Boeing engineers and with Airbus engineers. All are technically very good. Airbus engineers however really take their time, and copious vacations, as the company is more-or-less a multi-government entity, “too big to fail”. Note however the powerplants they chose – US-made LEAP turbofans, the real reason for the high efficiency of the Neo and the Max. Made in mostly union-free shops. One thing Boeing could do – move all commercial aircraft production to the union-free South with its strong work ethic and people who know how to “get ‘er done.”
Is there a section on crisis management? Seriously!
Skilled labour isn’t cheap and cheap labour isn’t skilled.
Airbus, a “more-or-less a multi-government entity, “too big to fail””, appears to be a socialist enterprise (Google it). Weird that their airplanes can even get off the ground.
BTW, a much greater proportion of Airbus workers are union members than are Boeing workers. Oops.
FWIW, I have lived in the North and I have lived in the South. “Work ethic” and knowing how to get things does isn’t geographic.
Agree!
I’ve noticed a pretty big difference in union vs not union though. The real problem is it warps the market. I once sat on a flight next to a GM seat catcher. The guy was obviously over qualified. I kept asking questions until he finally admitted the benefits and job security were just too good so he took the job, and planned to keep it. There’s just too many things wrong with that.
I want the guy on that line to either be thankful for the job and proud to do it well, or learning more things so he can then do better things. Seems to me, our labor laws are crazy and thus our unions are not really value adders. Bad managers get the employees they deserve and often deserve unionization, but our unions seem to effectively lock out other workers and better managers.
It’s going to be interesting to see how the vow to eliminate “traveling work” will be implemented. You can’t stop the whole line every time a thorny but isolated glitch has to be dealt with, and I assume the notion of somehow pulling a single aircraft out of the line is a non-starter.
Eventual (re)purchase of Spirit coupled with yet more QC and tighter integration of the traveling work & its documentation with mainline paperwork is probably what we’ll see. And likely some investment in in specialized AI too.
Boeing production woes were 20 years in the making and will get worse before they get better. The goods news is Boeing is at last being forced to get serious about fixing a broken QA process.
Finally if you don’t want the FAA squatting in your premises do your job ! ( Looking at all you, all the C suite execs raking in the bonuses )
I am willing to donate ten banners with the following slogans:
1. “A stitch in time saves nine.”
2. “More haste, less speed.”
3. “Measure twice, cut once.”
4. “Haste makes waste.”
5. “Shortcuts cut life short.”
6. “Slow and steady wins the race.”
7. “Pay now or pay later.”
8. “Cut corners and you’ll just have to go around the block again.”
9. “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
For corporate:
10. “Boeing: Where We Aim to Make Headlines for Innovation, Not Investigations.”
I would add one more to the corporate guys:
“Gentlemen, you don’t build airplanes. Your job is to empower your employees to design and build them.”
When W.E. Deming went to Japan and taught the Japanese about quality control in manufacturing, he gave them the message that quality cannot be inspected in at the end of the line. It has to be built in from the beginning. No amount of inspections or FAA oversight is going to help unless or until each employee is committed to doing things right the first time and making sure they follow the proper procedures. When a company tries to speed things up or increase production, the employees find ways to take shortcuts that sometimes work and sometimes create issues like door plugs coming off. I’m not bad-mouthing the Boeing employees; I’m sure they are capable of doing their jobs. But the relationship between them and management has been less than amicable for a long time, which doesn’t help matters, especially when time pressures and production rates (i.e. workload) keep going up. To me, what is needed is for Boeing’s top management (yes, including the CEO) to institute regular meetings with employees at all major locations, to just listen to them and see what their issues and challenges are. Then commit to solving the issues by mutual agreement. Neither side will get all that they want, but at least each will know that they have had input into solving the basic problems. Pie in the sky? Perhaps, but good communication is always better. By the way, the rapid productions rates for Airbus may eventually come back to bite them as well. After all, their workers are only human too.
I’d be interested to find out if what you propose is actually legal under the NLRB and all the rules and regs. The modern marriage has become a war of the sexes, and the modern workplace a class and race war. Doesn’t matter who we blame. How do we fix it?
“And Deming’s phone was ringing off the hook.”
Toyota calling!
Out of interest on W.E. Deming: He emphasized that over 90% of organizational problems are systemic, originating from management-designed systems rather than individual failures. In “Out of the Crisis,” Deming introduces his 14 Points for Management, advocating for a shift towards systemic improvements and continuous process optimization. He contends that simply replacing personnel, regardless of their position, fails to address the underlying issues. Instead, true resolution comes from reevaluating and improving the processes, policies, and cultural norms set by management. Deming’s philosophy centers on the idea that systemic issues require systemic solutions, focusing on enhancing the entire system for long-term success rather than attributing failures to individuals. (Google search)
Back in the early 1980’s a friend of mine worked at a GM car plant. He told be a story of how GM ordered mirrors for one car model from a Japanese vendor and made a big deal that no more than ten per thousand could be faulty. The first order arrived in 2 boxes. 990 perfect mirrors and a small box with 10 mirrors that had obviously been deliberately broken after manufacturing. 🤔