[markfenton]

The article mentions that at the time they were looking at the 737 replacement in the early 2000s they didn't think they could scale up the production to the volume needed for the 737's market. I think this fits the general theme of the article - they probably could if they started work now, but they had to make the decision on replacing the 737 or creating the 737 Max whilst guessing on the future years down the line.