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We used to be a nation that prided itself on the quality of the products we produced.
There is an old timer saying I heard growing up, "Do the job right or don't do it at all"
The 787 "Dreamliner" is a perfect example of maximizing profits over quality of the product being built.
The documentary on the construction of the Dreamliner is 48 minutes long so I will give a summary:
Mistakes Made:
1) The failed model of McDonnell Douglas carried over to Boeing Headquarters when the two companies merged. Bigger is not always better and concentrated power tends to corrupt.
2) Rather than hire competent people to assemble their planes, they hired cheap burger flippers off the street that were bragging about doing drugs on the job with no drug tests ever taken and shoddy in their workmanship.
3) Rather than make and assemble all the parts in Everett, Washington they outsourced all the parts to a gazillion different places around the globe.
The batteries and composite shell were the two most highlighted failures by quality inspectors but management signed off on it anyway and said to proceed with construction. Rather than replace the batteries with something different, they enclosed it in a metal vented shell. The defects with the composite shell were ignored.
4) The Union Mechanics went on strike which pissed off Management so they moved assembly to South Carolina. The quality of work at the South Carolina Plant was horrible as said by Quality Control Inspectors. When parts did not fit, they were hammered in to fit as said in the video by one of the inspectors.
5) The FAA person overseeing the fixes being done to the Dreamliner signed off on the fixes twice and then moved on to a Lobbying Job in DC on behalf of the airline industry and suggested the airlines be allowed to self regulate.
The profits they would have made had they done it in house would be not as substantial if the risks they took paid off but are ending up paying more now than if they had done it right the first time.
Hire incompetent people, cut wages or move to a lower wage state, outsource the work to other countries with unknown quality control and reputation.
They have spent billions of dollars in rectifying these problems when they should have done it right in the first place all in Washington and from the usual National and Local suppliers.
Who wants to go hop on a plane where profits over quality are the top priority? I'll never board one.
We have Walmart, an American owned company as a shining example of the results of profits over quality.
LOT spokeswoman Barbara Pijanowska-Kuras said the emergency landing was required according to safety procedures after the crew received a warning from the firefighting system in the luggage compartment.
But orders still rolling in despite competition from Airbus..
Good for them and the workers then.
I talked to a commercial pilot I know on another forum just recently and he said that most of the problems the video goes over are exaggerated despite the valid Management concerns.
There are "teething" problems all new planes go through.
Isn't this what Republicans want? The product of a broken union?
There is no respect for the working man in this country anymore. They don't want us to have a pension, a decent wage and certainly not health care. They want us to work like dogs for 40 years and then drop over dead when we can't do the job anymore.
That is why this country needs stronger labor unions. To protect us from the greed and lack of character of the leadership our broken colleges are putting out.
The management in the company I work for is by far the worst I've ever seen in my 35 years in the utility industry. Gutless, lack of vision, lack of knowledge and generally poor human beings. The union protects the customer and the employees.
Isn't this what Republicans want? The product of a broken union?
There is no respect for the working man in this country anymore. They don't want us to have a pension, a decent wage and certainly not health care. They want us to work like dogs for 40 years and then drop over dead when we can't do the job anymore.
That is why this country needs stronger labor unions. To protect us from the greed and lack of character of the leadership our broken colleges are putting out.
The management in the company I work for is by far the worst I've ever seen in my 35 years in the utility industry. Gutless, lack of vision, lack of knowledge and generally poor human beings. The union protects the customer and the employees.
Conservatives no
Republicans, You are correct.
Most Republicans I have come across are Pro Big Corporate and Banking while Conservatives are Pro Local Power and State Power.
Big Corporations and Big Banks are the top donors to both "teams" and I truly believe that both "teams" want unions gone so that power is more concentrated in the hands at the Corporate Banking Government Level and less power for everyone else.
They want the country setup exactly like a Corporation where you have your boardroom members and top paid execs at the government level and everyone else subservient to them.
They do not want a division of Economic and Political Power among the masses. Hence Citizens United and Unlimited Campaign Donations and Lobbying to Politicians ensured the ones at the top stay in command.
Humans are corrupt and the division of power is of utmost importance so corrupt human beings are not allowed to dictate their views over everyone else. Which is why I support limited government.
I would like to see one Republican offer how to give power back to the local communities, cities and states via government policies but they never do. They only support policies to allow the Big Multinationals to Grow at the expense to everyone else.
They in effect support Big Government which is made up of programs and policies that make Government Big.
Not a Democracy for all and not a Plutocracy for the rich elite.
With our Government being for sale to the highest bidder, it has essentially destroyed our country.
What happens when corporations in a limited government fail?
Nothing at the Government Level.
What happens when Big Corporations and Banks in bed with the Government Fail?
Well, we know the answer to that.
Boeing quality problems were around long before the "dream" hit the tarmac. The company at one point (80's) was constructed along the lines of two side by side silos of influence, on one side was manufacturing, a powerhouse of schedule driven managers, the other a quality control contingent with equal but separate powers. At the top was a leadership team made up of older company loyalists taken from the ranks of engineers to lawyers who were tabbed by the board to run the two sides with a view toward making the best product at an affordable price.
Many times on the shop floor quality control bosses were arguing with manufacturing bosses over what QC perceived to be poor quality practices in general or the quality of a single part put up for inspection by shop personnel. Over time the bean counters at Boeing succeeded in a compromise wherein the two teams were to be under common management. This meant that the direction of the company was now focused on one thing, production.
Was this a bad thing? In a way, yes, because it was seen as a triumph of production schedules over quality demands. The fact that the product flies at over 30,000 feet off the earth and is traveling at speeds over 500 MPH can not be ignored, and it wasn't, altogether. I'd rather see the old ways of separate powers be reestablished but I don't expect that to happen any time soon. it's still a revolutionary airplane, and the bugs will be worked out, they always have..Yes money talks and it certainly talks loud, often profane, but passenger safety is intrinsically tied to profits so it can't be viewed as a separate issue.
Boeing, like all large entities operates on a system of policy and procedures, there is no owner, there are no arbitrary decisions, there is little latitude exercised in upper management control, all is subject to the parameters of P&P. The internal structure of manufacturing is built around the master schedule, "the firing order" as it's known. This determines the end date for each aircrafts completion, and the millions of parts that makes that happen are being rammed through the build process as fast as time will allow. Sometimes they aren't perfect, but, they are in the "spec" when one considers form, fit, and function.
Anybody who has flown on Boeing planes know they are some of the best out there, not THE best every time, but close, and in some cases they actually ARE the best. No aviation company is stupid enough to compromise the quality for expedient building schedules, but, and this is at the heart of the OP, Boeing has changed, it isn't the old Boeing of our grandfathers time, and that's both good and bad for Boeing. Good because they have shed some weight and learned from the past, bad for the fact that they went a tad overboard in making the "new" company what it is at the expense of some very good labor and supplier relationships.
The 787 is known for a couple of major things that connotes it's advanced status, composite bodies, and electrically driven control surfaces. Both these initiatives have given airframe engineers some real grief but new stuff always has. The airlines have not forgotten to mind their P's and Q's either, safety is still at the top of their agenda, yes, right up there with profits, without one you can't have the other..............
2) Rather than hire competent people to assemble their planes, they hired cheap burger flippers off the street that were bragging about doing drugs on the job with no drug tests ever taken and shoddy in their workmanship.
3) Rather than make and assemble all the parts in Everett, Washington they outsourced all the parts to a gazillion different places around the globe.
The batteries and composite shell were the two most highlighted failures by quality inspectors but management signed off on it anyway and said to proceed with construction. Rather than replace the batteries with something different, they enclosed it in a metal vented shell. The defects with the composite shell were ignored.
4) The Union Mechanics went on strike which pissed off Management so they moved assembly to South Carolina. The quality of work at the South Carolina Plant was horrible as said by Quality Control Inspectors. When parts did not fit, they were hammered in to fit as said in the video by one of the inspectors.
5) The FAA person overseeing the fixes being done to the Dreamliner signed off on the fixes twice and then moved on to a Lobbying Job in DC on behalf of the airline industry and suggested the airlines be allowed to self regulate.
The profits they would have made had they done it in house would be not as substantial if the risks they took paid off but are ending up paying more now than if they had done it right the first time.
Hire incompetent people, cut wages or move to a lower wage state, outsource the work to other countries with unknown quality control and reputation.
They have spent billions of dollars in rectifying these problems when they should have done it right in the first place all in Washington and from the usual National and Local suppliers.
Who wants to go hop on a plane where profits over quality are the top priority? I'll never board one.
All of this rambling actually disputes your own thread..
You mean the employees, if they were given MORE PROFIT, then the quality would have INCREASED?
S0 all of the rambling against profits, you actually dont believe is true, or the employees profits would have nothing to do with quality.
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Boeing 787 Dreamliner: a timeline of problems
