Manufacturer still faces tough recovery

Boeing embarks on another year of rebuilding.

A year ago, the company came under fire over safety and quality concerns when a fuselage panel that covered an unused emergency exit door. he cleared the air from a nearly new Boeing 737 Max 9 operated by Alaska Airlines. The crash scared those on board, although no one was seriously injured and the plane made a safe emergency landing in Portland, Oregon.

The key bolts were not installed before the aircraft left Boeing’s 737 factory in Renton, Washington, a preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board found, again impaling the imagine of the American exporting brand.

Boeing’s stock price is down more than 30% over the past 12 months, while the S&P 500 is down nearly 27%.

Boeing executives have spent the past 12 months making major changes that span replacements in its executive ranks, including a new chief executiveto more robust training for hundreds of factory workers, many of whom are new.

On Friday, the company outlined its progress over the past year, including the start of random quality audits at factories. Boeing said it has “significantly” reduced defects in 737 fuselages made by Spirit AeroSystemswhat you do is buy againand cut the so-called traveled work, where the works to build the plane are done out of sequence, in an effort to reduce defects. The manufacturer also said it addressed much of the feedback from employees provided during sessions with management throughout the year.

Since the accident, the Federal Aviation Administration has increased its oversight of Boeing, slowing production of its best-selling 737 Max, although production is still below those levels. FAA chief Mike Whitaker said he would do it resigned on January 20warned the company on Friday that “enhanced surveillance is here to stay.”

He said Boeing’s turnaround “is not a one-year project.”

“What is needed is a fundamental cultural change at Boeing that is oriented around safety and quality over profits. This will require a sustained effort and commitment from Boeing, and unremitting scrutiny on our part,” he said. Whitaker in a statement.

That year was the first of two fatal crashes of its 737 Maxes that killed 346 people – Boeing’s worst crisis in recent memory. A flight control system was involved in both crashes, and the plane was grounded in the world for almost two years.

Other quality defects have emerged over the years, delaying deliveries of aircraft from the 737 Max, 787 Dreamliner and the pair of 747s that will serve as Air Force One, among others.

Since 2019, Boeing has lost more than $30 billion, and its new CEO is tasked with ensuring that Boeing can increase production without the defects that have slowed shipments in the past.

In August, the company brought Kelly Ortberga former CEO of Rockwell Collins with three decades of experience in aerospace, as the new chief executive of Boeing, replacing Dave Calhoun.

Weeks into Ortberg’s tenure, Boeing machinists went on strike for almost two months, a work stoppage that ended after approving a new four-year work contract with 38% increases. Some long-time workers sought to have Boeing take over the pensionsbut that was not part of the new employment contract.

The strike, however, has idled the production of most of Boeing’s jets, although factories have resumed production in recent weeks. It set Boeing up for another year of focus to stabilize the production to bring the jetliners to the airlines before growing further, while Airbus continues to reach the top of Boeing’s delivery volumes.

Boeing raised billions this fall to stem the crisis. Ortberg also said the company was cutting 10% of its workforce of about 170,000 people. The notices started going out late last year. Ortberg said in October that the company should focus on its core businesses and that it would review its portfolio.

“I think we’re better off … doing less and doing better than doing more and not doing well,” he said on his first earnings call in October.

He spent the first few weeks of his tenure visiting factories and moving to the Seattle area, where most of Boeing’s production is centered, and won praise from executives at the airlines that have grown up. exasperated with the delivery of the company’s rotating aircraft during a post-pandemic travel boom.

Bob Jordan, the airline’s CEO of all Boeing 737s Southwestwarned in an interview last month that it is “really early” in Boeing’s recovery, but said he thinks Ortberg understands the depth of the problems at the company.

“I’m not looking at this as a Band-Aid. I’m looking at this as a big change at Boeing,” he said.