This year can be considered a "year of accidents" for Boeing, as a series of accidents have greatly diminished the company's image. This week, Boeing finally officially submitted a quality improvement plan.
On Thursday, May 30th local time, Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun met with Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Director Mike Whitaker and submitted a plan promising to improve the safety and quality of its manufacturing through training, streamlining processes, and eliminating defects.
Since the door panel of a 737 Max aircraft fell during flight in January this year, the aviation manufacturer is facing multiple investigations. In February, The FAA has requested Boeing to submit a plan within 90 days to improve its culture and practices to meet FAA standards.
The plan submitted by Boeing on Thursday aims to demonstrate how Boeing will address the issues raised in the FAA audit, as well as the issues raised in a congressional authorization report released by a panel of experts in February this year. This report criticizes Boeing's safety culture, stating that Boeing's safety processes are "insufficient and confusing", that ordinary employees have little knowledge of the company's safety measures, and that employees may face retaliation for reporting safety issues.
Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration of the United States will measure some indicators to determine whether manufacturers are improving their processes, including the proportion of employees proficient in certain core skills, time spent repairing supplier and Boeing's own defects, shortages of daily parts, unfinished work after the aircraft leaves the factory, and errors discovered during final inspections before the aircraft is delivered to customers.
FAA Director Whittaker said at a press conference in Washington D.C., "This is a systemic change, and there is still a lot of work to be done. These indicators will provide us with a way to monitor their health status in the coming months."
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Earlier this year, The FAA has started to strengthen its supervision of Boeing, adding inspectors to the aircraft manufacturer's factories, and it is expected that this supervision will continue.
Currently, The FAA limits the production of Boeing Max to 38 aircraft per month. And the current production of the company is also below this level because it has slowed down production speed and attempted to improve quality. Whittaker stated that there is currently no target date for lifting the production cap.
After this meeting between the two parties, The FAA also stated that its senior leadership will meet with Boeing on a weekly basis to review the progress of the performance indicators specified in the plan. Whittaker stated that he will meet with Boeing CEO Calhoun once a quarter, and their next meeting will be held in Seattle in September.
Whittaker pointed out that the focus will not be on auditing, but on inspection - more on hands-on communication with those present to gain a more accurate understanding of what is happening.