Since January, more than 70,000 Boeing Commercial Airplanes teammates across the company have paused production and delivery activities for a day to focus on ways to improve safety and quality. Based on the employee feedback provided, our top areas of focus include training, processes, defects and culture.
Employees at more than 20 sites in the U.S., UK, Canada, and Australia have participated in stand downs. The sessions have generated more than 35,000 employee comments, with common themes like obstacles in their work, ideas and suggestions to improve.
All submissions get categorized, prioritized and reviewed for action. We’ve systematically addressed thousands of comments and suggestions; teams are working through the entire list including many that will be included as part of our Safety and Quality Plan (90-day plan) that we will submit to the FAA at the end of May.
A few examples include:
- Training: We have added new training material for manufacturing and quality roles that averages about 20-50 more training hours per employee, depending on work scope.
- Tooling: To help teammates better do their jobs, more than 7,000 new tools and other equipment have been provided across commercial airplanes programs.
In recent Boeing Commercial Airplanes employee meetings, leaders talked about these changes and what’s ahead:
“We want our teammates to know their voices are heard, and that we are taking action to address their improvement ideas. Ensuring the safety and quality of our products and services requires a full team effort. Our customers, our company and the flying public depend on it.”– Elizabeth Lund, BCA Quality senior vice president and Quality Operations Council chair
“When we find issues, we go as far as standing down a team to make sure that everybody on the team or everybody in the area is aware of the issue. It's not meant to be punitive [and] we share the information across the programs, from the 737 to the 777 to the 787 to the 767.” – Mike Fleming, BCA Airplane Programs and Customer Support senior vice president and Program Management Operation Council chair
