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Citing a serious flight test incident and lack of design maturity, FAA slows Boeing 777X certification
In yet another blow to Boeing, the Federal Aviation Administration last month formally denied the jet maker permission to move forward with a key step in certifying its forthcoming giant widebody airplane, the 777X. (www.seattletimes.com) Más...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
Yep, just as I predicted. A delay from the FAA. I knew this would come eventually. but do you know who does not have these problems? AIRBUS!
This was all perfectly predictable when Boeing moved their corporate headquarters to Chicago away from where the aircraft are designed and built. Clearly to even think about doing that showed the rot had already gone deep. If I remember correctly at the time the CEO said that it made sense to lessen HIS travel schedule distances. Strangely enough Chicago was also where he he grew up, surely that was just a coincidence...
To start to fix the culture:
Step(1) Move headquarters back to where the engineering and plane building actually gets done.
Step(2) Remove all things like "executive dining rooms" etc.. Senior management needs to interact with troops on a daily basis to really understand what is going on.
Step(3) Replace the entire Board of Directors as they have clearly failed at their job to provide meaningful oversight of management.
Step(4) Flatten and thin the organization as clearly there is a major disconnect between what is really happening and what management thinks is happening. Too many layers.
As others have posted it is going to take many years to rebuild the culture.
To start to fix the culture:
Step(1) Move headquarters back to where the engineering and plane building actually gets done.
Step(2) Remove all things like "executive dining rooms" etc.. Senior management needs to interact with troops on a daily basis to really understand what is going on.
Step(3) Replace the entire Board of Directors as they have clearly failed at their job to provide meaningful oversight of management.
Step(4) Flatten and thin the organization as clearly there is a major disconnect between what is really happening and what management thinks is happening. Too many layers.
As others have posted it is going to take many years to rebuild the culture.
Interesting how the PR coming from Boeing the last couple years is all about how wonderful the company is for diversity hiring and green initiatives and lots of other feel good baloney that has nothing to do with making aircraft. Maybe Boeing needs to focus less on how people "feel" and start hiring the best and the brightest and put them to work building the safest aircraft once again.
In modern times, that is considered to be racism.
The FAA allegation that Boeing is "not following its own (development) process" is a huge red flag. Documented standard operating procedures ("SOPs") are the heart of a quality management system. Not following their own procedures is a fundamental breakdown in safety culture. It is truly frightening.
Finding software defects during a flight test is another red flag that the software development process at Boeing or its contractors is severely flawed. If Boeing had a strong safety culture, Boeing itself would have been shocked that their "defect containment", the heart of a safety-significant software development process, allowed a software defect to go undetected all the way through ground-based unit, integration, and system test and go on to cause a serious nonconformance (the “uncommanded pitch event”) during a flight test. Boeing itself should have immediately halted the certification process while it does corrective and preventive action on its software development process.
Finding software defects during a flight test is another red flag that the software development process at Boeing or its contractors is severely flawed. If Boeing had a strong safety culture, Boeing itself would have been shocked that their "defect containment", the heart of a safety-significant software development process, allowed a software defect to go undetected all the way through ground-based unit, integration, and system test and go on to cause a serious nonconformance (the “uncommanded pitch event”) during a flight test. Boeing itself should have immediately halted the certification process while it does corrective and preventive action on its software development process.
For some people the saying now is "if its Boeing I ain't going.'