Boeing’s #1 problem is not that they lack a culture of accountability.

It’s that they *hate unions* and *hate criticism.* So many of Boeing's major actions in the last 20, even 30 years have had to do with their attempts to break unions and escape political pressure in Washington State. The payoff is pressing workers without enough training, denigrating and overruling the work of union employees, and outsourcing work to avoid increasing union employment. This has cost them $10s of billions.

‘This Has Been Going on for Years.’ Inside Boeing’s Manufacturing Mess. — The Wall Street Journal

Outsourcing worried engineers and sparked battles over quality before a door plug blew out on an Alaska Airlines plane midflight

From the No-Shit Sherlock department: ‘In 2011, former Boeing executive Jim Albaugh said that the approach had backfired. “In hindsight, we spent a lot more money in trying to recover than we ever would have spent if we tried to keep many of the key technologies closer to Boeing,” he said in an address at Seattle University. “The pendulum swung too far.”’
Arguably, a lot of companies have suffered, none worse than Boeing, because of unreasonable hatred of unions. They bring that hatred into negotiations that they then lose, costing them huge sums while the unions often get most or all of what they want.
@glennf They actually don't care about the money. If they did they'd stop doing this. What they care about is exerting their superiority over the lowly proles who don't know who the Master of the Universe are. Money serves power.
The 1997 merger that paved the way for the Boeing 737 Max crisis

Only now, with the plane indefinitely grounded, are we beginning to see the scale of its effects.

Yahoo Finance
@the_other_jon @glennf This. It's Boeing's poisoned acquisition of McDonnel Douglas that ruined it.
@redrummy @the_other_jon @glennf I know at least a dozen Boeing employees and they all agree.
@glennf Oooh, that’s a good quote.
@waldoj I didn’t know that about it until reading the article—it’s like the Mythical Man-Month sound bite about late projects getting later.

@glennf

There's an inherent tension here.

The subcontractor's business plan is not the same as the actual plan. As with the actual plan, the main plan of the subcontractor is to divert money from execution of the actual plan.

Airline plan is "operate aircraft affordably safe enough to sell tickets," different from Boeing plan "affordably safe enough to sell airplanes.).

Everything but money is secondary. Financiers prioritize
money above all and aviation is financialized.

@glennf

Better articulated, more deeply explored.

Gift link.

(I've a person close to me who took early retirement as a senior avionics software engineer because of the growing financial stink of Boeing. It's been a horrible process to watch.)

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/01/boeing-737-max-corporate-culture/677120/?gift=w2hbEf3JROTUmsXaSUzB4ULtWlb8_GRJrQWxo0Qr2vA&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

What’s Gone Wrong at Boeing

Behind the 737 Max’s persistent problems is the erosion of a valuable corporate culture. That will be harder to fix than a loose bolt.

The Atlantic

@glennf

Or as one says of IT security, "we're only as safe as the least qualified user."

@glennf

I mean, this is true of every industry and people die because of it. Why should aerospace be any different?

@sboots *beats drum on gov’t outsourcing*