galaxy flyer
I have to wonder if the stupid move to Chicago hasn't had its effects. Senior management, however unoriented to engineering realities they are, being 2,000 miles away cannot have helped.
Indeed. When I heard the move did not include the whole production facility - it was clear that it was being done to save money and nothing else. It was also clear that the Board were already entranced by their new hire to agree to such a remarkable thing.
In my current line of work, I visit many different premises that carry out the same function (nothing to do with flying). I see a BIG difference in the way they work: Some of them have the office remote from the operations and some have it 'close coupled'.
In one type of design, the manager is 1,000 yards (or more) down the road in another building. In the other, the manager is so close that, if there is a sudden change in the background noise - they will hear it in their office - and be outside in 15 seconds in among their customers.
In the first, if something goes wrong in the operations area they say, "You can ring the boss but he won't come and sort it" at the other they say, "I'll just pop in and tell the boss what's happened." You don't have to take long to work out which type of establishment works better and has happy customers ...
MWorth
Ray Conner spoke in New York yesterday, saying that the company would move "really fast" to get the Dreamliner back in the air following FAA certification plan approval.
Ah yes, get a plan for approval and then work to the plan for approval. That's the way to engineer in the 21st century.
Turbine D
Funny you should bring this up. When he was at GE Aircraft Engines, he moved his office to the far end of the complex, as far away from the action as one could get, but close to the sales marketing folks. I don't think many of the worker bees ever saw him walk the factory floor or visit the Engineering folks, reclusive is a good word description. At Boeing, video conferencing from Chicago doesn't hack it.
The ONLY thing to do is to walk around the 'shop' be it an office, a department store, or a factory. TALK to the people at the coal face and you will learn what you need to know.
But Boeing was due for a fall. They had become global top dog and yet they still wanted more profit. When that happens, if the shareholders and bonus catchers won't accept "Steady as we go, doing good work" then they start cutting chunks of the company out and retiring the long standing employees who know what to do in a crisis. Mainly because they were there in the LAST crisis!
Subsequently, Boeing found themselves in the same position as their legacy carrier clients! They were big and fat and, because they were top dog, thought that they knew how how to do it. They had become so brain damaged by success that they had no concept of failure. When the failure arrived - they were caught in the headlights and had no idea how to handle it.
Posters ask how the Board allows this to continue? Boards don't like admitting they have made a complete stuff up and are STILL running the company over the edge. So they have to pretend that they know what they are doing. From what has been written about this CEO, he is obviously a spectacular speaker and can convince people face to face of almost anything. Saying No to him will take a lot.
The only thing that will change that are deaths or large amounts of money. They have, thus far, avoided the deaths so when the large amounts of money start rushing out of the door - he will follow.
For the record, I have never worked in the airline industry but was in IT and telecoms for 27 years, working for a very wide range of companies (finance, shipping, cargo, retail, etc) in many different countries, including the USA. I specialised in big projects and I've made my fair number of mistakes.