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by Zigurd 844 days ago
Alignment of incentives. Airlines have fewer, smaller conflicts of alignment. Boeing is in a hurry to cash in on huge demand for single-aisle passenger planes before A320/1 or a stretch A220 fill that demand. It gets worse: The longer expansion of 737MAX production is delayed, the less demand. It doesn't just expire, it declines over time. Every sale delayed is also maintenance income delayed.

On top of that, Spirit Aerosystems was spun off so Boeing could demand higher production and lower prices, and fragment their assembly line workforce.

In this environment, when management has been hostile to their workers' unions, how are workers going to feel safe raising a red flag over "minor" production issues? You can't train for correct behavior when the incentives are so far out of alignment.