(DailyDig.com) – On February 21, Boeing announced that they were changing their 737 Max lead employee, Ed Clark, due to his troubled leadership regarding the manufacturing and safety measures of the Max 9 jet. On January 5, a newly produced Max 9 flown by Alaska Airlines suffered a scary incident when a door panel blew off during a flight. There were no serious injuries reported after their emergency landing.
According to Boeing, the change in leadership is aimed at providing increased quality control in response to recent incidents and pressure from Congress and regulators. After two crashes that cost the lives of 346 souls and billions in revenue, Boeing initially assigned control of the Max program to Clark, an 18-year veteran of the company.
Boeing’s chief executive, Stan Deal, said that Clark will be immediately replaced by Katie Ringgold, who was previously overseeing deliveries of 737 jets. Another Boeing executive, Elizabeth Lund, will be in charge of all Boeing commercial aircraft safety. Deal said that Boeing commends Clark for his many years of service to the company.
According to Deal, Boeing’s increased attention to safety will exceed all requirements for quality, instilling confidence once again in their focus on providing what their customers expect of them.
Director Richard Aboulafia from AeroDynamic Advisory commended the change in leadership by Boeing employees instead of hiring outside employees. He said that changing the organizational leadership is the first step to regaining the trust of customers and regulators. Boeing’s issues involve fundamental problems, and staff is only one of them. Their supply chain resources are the other problem they have been facing.
Boeing announced that they were having problems with quality control with their supplier, Spirit AeroSystems. They manufacture the bodies of the 737 Max aircraft, and Boeing found issues with holes drilled incorrectly in the Max bodies. According to the company, the issue was not a safety risk as the problem was identified, but the delay in replacing the faulty bodies involved nearly fifty aircraft.
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