WOEING: ‘This Has Been Going on for Years.’ Inside Boeing’s Manufacturing Mess.
Long before the harrowing Alaska Airlines blowout on Jan. 5, there were concerns within Boeing BA -2.23%decrease; red down pointing triangle
about the way the aerospace giant was building its planes. Boeing, like so many other American manufacturers, was outsourcing more and more of the components that went into its complex machines.
A Boeing aerospace engineer presented a controversial white paper in 2001 at an internal technical symposium. The engineer, John Hart-Smith, warned colleagues of the risks of the subcontracting strategy, especially if Boeing outsourced too much work and didn’t provide sufficient on-site quality and technical support to its suppliers.
“The performance of the prime manufacturer can never exceed the capabilities of the least proficient of the suppliers,” Hart-Smith wrote. “These costs do not vanish merely because the work itself is out-of-sight.”
The paper became a sensation within Boeing. It was passed among engineers. Posted on factory walls. Hart-Smith, after he later retired from Boeing, said of his warning of excessive outsourcing: “It’s common sense.”
Two decades later, Boeing is reckoning with the fallout from its outsourcing strategy.
But, of course, they didn’t listen to the engineers. When you’re a tech company, or a manufacturing company, or, well, most kinds of company you should probably listen to the engineers.
