Boeing’s 777 assembly line at Everett, Washington, is reportedly in a state of disarray, according to information published in The Seattle Times on September 9, 2024.
The report, which quotes anonymous sources within the company, describes a chaotic work environment in which some airframes are rushed through the production line and need to be completed later outside of the regular sequence, potentially exposing them to production defects.
The same article also describes how, in some other cases, the process to assemble the fuselage panels for 777 airliners is taking longer than originally planned due to inexperienced labor. The report cites sources as claiming that this part of the manufacturing process has been experiencing regular quality issues for years.
These damning claims have appeared at a time when the aircraft manufacturer is facing industrial unrest from trade unions. On September 8, 2024, Boeing said it had reached a tentative agreement with union representatives, which would prevent 33,000 of its machinists from going on strike.
The deal, which still has to be ratified, would see some average wage rises of 33% across some professional categories as well as some other benefits, a figure that is still short of the 40% that unions requested. There is also still some uncertainty about whether the workers will approve the deal.
The threat of strike is one of the factors mentioned by the whistleblowers interviewed by The Seattle Times as contributing to the ongoing quality issues. According to the claims this would be due to Boeing aiming to speed up certain steps of the assembly process to prevent unfinished airframes from being held up on the production line.
These revelations as well as the industrial turmoil represent yet another challenge for the company’s new CEO, Kelly Ortberg, as he starts his tenure at the helm of the aircraft making giant.
7 comments
Wow, amazing, making sure I don’t fly on the 777-X at all…
Nor the 787 or the 737.
I know the boeing has problems but i’m concerned that some of the stuff has not been confirmed. I’m not saying this article’s not truthful but there’s no proof it is.
Articles about tires falling off Boeing aircraft or not, Boeing fault.They were aircraft maintenance fault of that specific airline.
I believe in factual statements and the truth By caution that a lot of stuff is anonymous and not prove.
What did born say about this
So now I’m wondering if the CCP is somehow paying off workers in some way to undermine Boeing.
Remember, they are working to gain traction on their fledgling C919 and would love to see a badly damaged Boeing across all our product lines.
Could Boeing possible make things any worse? What used to be one of the most respected aviation designers and manufacturers in the world, is now a worldwide punchline. This is what happens when accountants and investors run a company instead of designers and engineers. In today’s Boeing, the 747 and B-52 would have never been created.
Their innovation days are dead.
It sounds like Union terrorism. They didn’t get a 40 percent raise they wanted so they plant stories like this and call it whistleblower, more like Union thuggery.
The out of sequence rework has happened since forever. When major panels are completed there is always minor rework that takes place. Working out of position is very common. This is nothing new. About the contract offer, that 33% is for newer hires and those lower on the pay scales. The upper end is 25% over 4 years after we only received 4% spread over pervious 8 years. Then by eliminating our yearly bonus it’s directly taking part of that base wage increase right back effectively making yr1 7.3%, yr2 .3%, yr3 .3%, yr4 2 3% as our bonus has avg 3.7% of our gross pay. Making it really 10.2%.. The new machinist 401k offering is a separate 401k starting from scratch with a maximum contribution of $4160 that is attendance based and we can’t contribute more. It really is a polished turd.