Stats for nerds
4recommend
4mentions
4people
2023–2025years
100% recommend
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- I read a great book about Boeing called Flying Blind by Peter Robinson about the 737 crisis and the downfall of Boeing, its main premise was how a toxic corporate culture took over, removed power from scientists, safety and engineers and gave power to lobbyists and MBA finance types. They pressure regulators to approve the 737 and rush production, skimping on safety and qualifications. The McDonnell Douglas merger poisoned Boeing’s culture as MBA style management replaced an engineering first culture and shifted priorities from “build the safest airplane in the world” to “hit aggressive quarterly targets.”
A key component was the move of corporate HQ and power base from Seattle to Chicago where the execs lived, wrestling it away from the engineers in Seattle. Later they moved their HQ again to Washington DC to be closer to lobbying!
- While I agree that Oliver did a pretty good job skewering Boeing in the ~33 minutes allotted I'd argue that Peter Robinson does a better and more complete job in his 2021 book Flying Blind: The 737 MAX Tragedy and the Fall of Boeing.[0]
What I find most sad about what Boeing has become is that it was so predictable. I worked as an outside contractor at various Boeing locations in Washington and Oregon installing, maintaining, and training on the operation of CNC milling machines in the mid '90s and early 2000s. I was there before and and in the early days of the merger with McDonnell Douglas. In those days the pervasive sentiment among the machinists, engineers, and managers, many of whom had spent two and three decades working for the company was that the merger was going to get people killed. Sadly, those predictions came true even if it took longer than some may have expected.
[0] https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/646497/flying-blind...
- I'm listening to the "Flying Blind" book by Peter Robinson right now. I think much of this video is based on the same research. Would recommend it.
- I'd also add Flying Blind by Peter Robinson, a book written specifically about the demise of Boeing's culture and how it translated into the 737 Max disaster.
Out-Sourced Profits: The Cornerstone of Successful Subcontracting by L. J. Hart-Smith, an engineer at Boeing's Phantom Works unit during that transition period, was a internal paper that walks through one of the many disputes between Boeing and Douglas/GE culture and derives why the Boeing way was correct.
