When it comes to safety culture at Boeing, there is a “disconnect” between senior management and workers, and employees responsible for checking the company’s planes question whether they can raise issues without fear of retaliation, according to a panel of outside experts.
The aviation-industry and government experts also said safety training and procedures at Boeing are constantly changing, leading to confusion among employees.
The comments were contained in a report Monday to the Federal Aviation Administration. Congress ordered the study in 2020, when it passed legislation to reform how the FAA certifies new planes after two deadly crashes involving Boeing 737 Max jetliners.
Safety at Boeing is being re-examined after last month’s blowout of an emergency door panel on an Alaska Airlines Max jet. Accident investigators said in a preliminary report that bolts used to help hold the panel in place were missing after the plane underwent repairs at Boeing’s factory in Renton, Washington.
…has made changes that have reduced the chance of retaliation against employees who report safety problems…
There should be ZERO chances of retaliation. Reporting safety problem should be rewarded. and not just safety problems, any non-conformity must be properly documented and acted on.
I mean yeah but when you have 50,000 employees there’s like 20,000 of them in a management position.
Roles and responsibilities. People who’s role is to report non conformities should not be managed by people who 's role is to deliver on time. That’s a conflict of interest. That goes all the way up the chain of command. Manufacturing and quality are meant to be independant.
Yes absolutely. That should winnow down the number of people responsible for the culture a bit.
But you also have people reporting to Operations (not quality) who will discover defects. And then they either need to feel empowered to inform quality or their manager.
Independent quality function does not completely solve the culture problem. In fsct, I’d bet their quality organization is independent.
