You know how sometimes you start on a little cleaning project — organizing your closet, say, or scrubbing inside the fridge — and then it balloons into a cleaning frenzy because you realize everything you own is out of place? That's kinda what it's like for Boeing right now, only the house is a multibillion-dollar corporation and the things that are out of place are, like, the things that keep the planes working right.
Here's the deal: About 50 of Boeing's 737 Max jets — the same model that lost a chunk of its fuselage midflight last month — will have to be reworked after one of Boeing's suppliers found that two holes had been "misdrilled."
The planes had not yet been delivered, and a Boeing official described the problem in a memo as "not an immediate flight safety issue."
The supplier, Spirit AeroSystems, confirmed in a statement that it misdrilled the holes and that one if its own workers identified the issue.
Boeing shares, which are down 18% since the start of the year, slipped 1.3% Monday.
Meanwhile, Tim Clark, the president of Emirates, told the Financial Times that he had seen a "progressive decline" in Boeing's standards, which attributed to long-running management and governance missteps, including prioritizing profit over engineering excellence.
"They've got to get their manufacturing processes under review so there are no corners cut ... I'm sure Dave Calhoun and Stan Deal are on that," he added, referring to Boeing's CEO and head of commercial airplanes. "This is the last chance saloon."
Why it matters: Boeing, which reports quarterly earnings Tuesday, is under growing pressure to get its house in order. But that house has been falling into disarray for years as executives have repeatedly prioritized fatter profit margins at the expense of quality.
Boeing's safety-oriented reputation has been in the gutter for the past five years, starting with fatal crashes of two Max jets that killed more than 300 people. The Jan. 5 door-plug incident — which narrowly avoided serious injuries because no one happened to be sitting by the section of plane that blew away — is just the latest in a string of production snafus.
My two cents: While the exact cause of the Jan. 5 incident is still under investigation, Boeing's CEO told investors last week that "we caused the problem" and that Boeing would be held accountable. "We simply must be better."
What that means for the company isn't yet clear. Given Boeing's grip on the market — it is effectively a global duopoly with Airbus, its European rival — there's no real threat of losing customers anytime soon, even if it were to do nothing.
Boeing's broken house needs a down-to-the-studs gut renovation. But its recent history in dealing with the Max 9 crises suggests it may try to get away with just some fresh paint and new furniture.
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