Boeing is changing the way it trains new employees at the plant near Seattle that assembles the 737 Max, part of a broader effort to improve quality following the mid-air explosion. A 737 Max aircraft is in various stages of assembly at the Boeing plant in Renton, Washington, on Tuesday.
Jennifer Buchanan/Pool Photo Credit: The Seattle Times
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RENTON, Wash. — Boeing is assembling the 737 at a massive plant here that can accommodate more than a dozen unfinished aircraft, its shiny green fuselage lined up from nose to tail.
But Boeing's new hires spend several months at the Boeing training center next door learning the basics before working on these jets.
“Everything has a name, everything has a dimension, everything has a place. Derrick Farmer, who has been training at Boeing for about two months, said:
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Farmer worked as an aviation mechanic in the Army, helping fly Boeing helicopters for nine years. Farmer, who is now learning how to build airplanes, says he has a lot to understand down to a detailed level. He even likes himself.
“Every bolt, every washer, every rivet,” he said. “Everything is important.”
Boeing has gone on a hiring spree, adding thousands of new employees to replenish skilled workers who have left in droves due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Every bolt, every washer, every rivet. Everything matters,” said Derrick Farmer (right) during an electrical systems training session with Timothy Well at Boeing’s Basic Training Center on Tuesday, June 25, 2024.
Jennifer Buchanan/Pool photo courtesy of The Seattle Times
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Now Boeing is changing the way it trains new employees at the plants that assemble the 737 Max. It's part of a wider effort to improve quality control after a door plug panel blew a relatively new plane out of the air. This week the company gave reporters a rare glimpse inside its 737 factory near Seattle. At the plant, Boeing employees failed to reinstall four keyed bolts that were supposed to hold the door plugs in place.
“We are confident that the steps we have taken ensure the safety of every aircraft that leaves this factory,” said Elizabeth Lund, Boeing’s senior vice president of quality. “I am very confident that something like this will never happen again.”
Lund said Boeing has made many changes since the door plug incident. The company has added new steps to ensure tasks are performed in the correct order and properly documented.
Lund said Boeing is rethinking how it trains new employees.
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“It worked before when there weren’t a lot of new people coming in,” she told reporters this week. But with so many new people, Lund says, they haven't received much on-the-job training from experienced employees.
“That person is there to help them do their job. The relationship is not as strong as it used to be,” she said.
Boeing responded by creating a formal mentoring program, Lund said. Basic training, which was up to 12 weeks, was added a few more weeks and has now been increased to 14 weeks. And the company is revising its training materials to make them more practical.
Elizabeth Lund, Boeing's senior vice president of quality, speaks to gathered media in front of slides detailing the door plug rupture that occurred on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 on January 5, 2024.
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“We’ve definitely incorporated more reps and realistic repetitions,” said Kayla Abusham, a trainer in the electrical department.
“It’s a lot more complicated,” Abusham said, forcing trainees to focus on the details of how to record their work “just like you would on the floor.”
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At another station in the training center, Zach Jackson shows reporters the proper way to drill holes in sheet metal. Jackson began working at Boeing in 1978. He left in the 1990s. And then a few years ago he decided to come back and train his next generation.
“I like it here. That's why I'm still here. “I’m here to help.” Jackson said. “My son works here now. “He never wanted to work for Boeing, but I convinced him to do it.”
How did Jackson convince him?
“I showed him my salary.” he said with a smile.
Boeing isn't the only company in the aviation industry that has lost a lot of experience on the shop floor. The same goes for Spirit AeroSystems, a major supplier of 737 fuselages in Wichita, Kansas.
Boeing is in talks to acquire most of Spirit. We reacquired a factory that we had sold almost 20 years ago.
Both companies have already made several changes to reduce the number of production errors before the fuselage arrives at Boeing factories.
Orange tape points to a slightly raised rivet near the mid-cabin door plug of a 737 Max aircraft at the Boeing 737 plant in Renton, Washington, Tuesday, June 25, 2024.
Jennifer Buchanan/Pool Photo Credit: The Seattle Times
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“You can see there’s a piece of orange tape right over the door here,” said Katie Ringgold, vice president and general manager of the Boeing 737 program and plant manager where the jet is assembled.
Ringgold points to a piece of tape marking a single rivet on the fuselage of a production airplane, which sticks out too far from the skin. But overall, Ringgold says there have been fewer problems with the new fuselage in recent months.
“So it’s not perfect yet, but we’ve seen a significant reduction in the number of supplier-introduced defects found here,” Ringgold said.
Federal regulators have capped production of Boeing's 737 jets at 38 per month, and Ringgold said the company is producing fewer than that.
“My focus is not interest rates. My focus is to stabilize this plant through the most important safety and quality changes,” she said.
Ultimately, Boeing will have to speed up production to satisfy investors and analysts on Wall Street, as well as airlines eager for new aircraft.
But now, company leaders say they're focused on making every bolt and rivet right.
Katie Ringgold, vice president and general manager of the 737 Program, speaks to gathered media at the Boeing 737 factory on Tuesday, June 25, 2024.
Jennifer Buchanan/Pool Photo Credit: The Seattle Times
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