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Boeing Engineers Lost Control of the Company
131–140 of 234 posts
Re: Boeing Engineers Lost Control of the Company
#132Why are the engineers being blamed? Why not frame it as
Boeing MBAs took over the company and drove quality down.
Re: Boeing Engineers Lost Control of the Company
#133Note two contradictory popular trends: 1. AI is going to replace cheap labor 2. Engineering companies are outsourcing because of cheap labor The reality is that trend #2 is orders of magnitude larger. Any reversal of that by ‘AI’ would be the biggest jobs boom in decades for western nations, and according to this article, would increase quality and therefore trade balance as well. The other reality is that manufactur…
"AI took your job" so far has mostly meant "An Indian".
Re: Boeing Engineers Lost Control of the Company
#134Note two contradictory popular trends: 1. AI is going to replace cheap labor 2. Engineering companies are outsourcing because of cheap labor The reality is that trend #2 is orders of magnitude larger. Any reversal of that by ‘AI’ would be the biggest jobs boom in decades for western nations, and according to this article, would increase quality and therefore trade balance as well. The other reality is that manufactur…
"AI took your job" so far has mostly meant "An Indian".
Dirty secret, other countries automate, the US outsources.
Re: Boeing Engineers Lost Control of the Company
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm almost certain "expense of human lives" didn't come up as a factor on any of the merger pitch decks. Frankly its a huge leap to see that a merger of two successful and relatively safe aircraft manufacturers would be intentionally at the expense of human lives.
Why would it have to be intentional? They are pursuing profit. Human lives were ended as a result of their actions in the pursuit of profit. Is that not pursuing profit at the expense of human lives?
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Re: Boeing Engineers Lost Control of the Company
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why would it have to be intentional? They are pursuing profit. Human lives were ended as a result of their actions in the pursuit of profit. Is that not pursuing profit at the expense of human lives?
If I drive to the store to get milk and end up getting in a fatal accident along the way, am I pursuing milk at the expense of human lives?
It's like going to get milk every day for 20 years, then deciding to let your sometimes reliable brother get milk for you because it's cheaper, and after they kill people in a wreck getting milk you keep on letting them get milk for you.
Re: Boeing Engineers Lost Control of the Company
#137Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are different kinds of outsourcing. One is where a subcontractor has an existing and superior product, which incurs integration cost, but results in a superior product. The other is exporting a core competence to an inexperienced subcontractor for less cost, which incurs training costs, integration costs, loss of intellectual capital, logistics loss, and results in an inferior product.
> which incurs training costs, integration costs, loss of intellectual capital, logistics loss, and results in an inferior product What I'm arguing is that, in order to effectively outsource, one must get good at the so-referred training and integration costs, while hedging against logistics issues. Otherwise you will get, as you prophesy, an inferior product. But I'm not convinced that's inevitable. Of note, keeping…
It's hard to view a given strategy as being successful or unsuccessful for a given business without counterfactual's over time. If Boeing hadn't outsourced they may have struggled to remain cost competitive; alternately they may have produced more innovative and dominant products over the relatively long time horizon of ~20 years. Most of the modern case studies I've seen on outsourcing deal primarily with dominant players that would likely be alright regardless of any decisions they made over the course of 10 years.
Are there well known examples of companies starting as a low to mid-tier player in their sector, and gaining market share through the use of outsourcing?
Re: Boeing Engineers Lost Control of the Company
#138I agree 100%. McDonnell-Douglas' corrupt military contractor culture ate Boeing from the inside. I have family that work at Boeing and the tales of corruption they told me are hair-raising.
Re: Boeing Engineers Lost Control of the Company
#139When the 737 was first created, iterating a known type of aircraft was much less of a concern. It was not a key design constraint. As time went by and we learned more and the good idea faeries had time to think about things, we now have all kinds of regulation that makes the cost of making a new plane much higher if it is not an iteration on an existing design. This sort of regulatory pressure has a tendency to nix i…
I don't think this is a new phenomena. My understanding is that the MD-80 was built on the DC-9 airframe partially to avoid the costs and efforts of recertification, and that was 40 years ago.
Aside from regulation, There are very good business reasons from both ends of the industry that exert pressure to iterate on an old design. (E.g Each additional airframe dramatically increases the complexity of an airline's maintenance organization.)
Re: Boeing Engineers Lost Control of the Company
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
If I drive to the store to get milk and end up getting in a fatal accident along the way, am I pursuing milk at the expense of human lives?
It's like going to get milk every day for 20 years, then deciding to let your sometimes reliable brother get milk for you because it's cheaper, and after they kill people in a wreck getting milk you keep on letting them get milk for you.
Except, going by your anology, this would be the first time Boeings brother killed someone getting milk.