Like every other company in the US, Boeing has been on a massive cost cutting mission over the last 20 years. The objective is to maximize stock value and thus executive pay. They do this by outsourcing as much as possible, including a lot of the engineering. Their MO now is to only hire as many in house engineers as needed to get through a project then fire them when they’re done. There is very little legacy knowledge there, they have to reinvent the wheel every new airplane they design or every new series of an old airplane (like the MAX). Pilots note that there are a lot of similarities between Boeing designs and Embraer systems. That’s because most of embraer’s airplanes were designed by engineers Boeing had discarded. It’s not likely to change unless the Harvard MBA management culture is somehow rooted out.
“Their MO now is to only hire as many in house engineers as needed to get through a project then fire them when they’re done.”
Been there done that.. Not for Boeing but another couple companies. It is good money when they hire me on contract. Then, Out the door. However, they do keep the ‘diversity’ hires to avoid being “THAT’S RACIST.” It is a shame. I take pride in my work as a design engineer and sad to see issues like this, that should have never happened, drag us all down in the crapper.
It’s not likely to change unless the Harvard MBA management culture is somehow rooted out.
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Seen it. MBAs are killing us.
Started with McNamara’s Harvard MBAs and the military.
Unless someone remembers farther back.
It will have to be rooted out in the manufacturers, the airlines, DOD, NASA, etc ...
Technical merit should be valued much more highly than cost in awarding contracts.