Boeing is back in the spotlight, but not for the best reasons. The company is having to rethink its delivery goals for the 737 MAX due to a new manufacturing issue. Just last month, in July 2023, Brian West, the CFO at Boeing, was talking about delivering 400 to 450 of these planes in 2023. Now, that number is up in the air.
What’s the Issue?
Spirit AeroSystems, a key supplier for Boeing, spilled the beans on August 23, 2023. They found a defect in the 737’s aft bulkhead. But don’t worry too much; they said it’s “only some units” that have the problem. On the same day, The Air Current also reported that some 737 fuselages had issues like “hundreds of misaligned and duplicated holes.”
Spirit AeroSystems was quick to act. They’ve already made changes to how they make these parts. They’re also working with Boeing to fix any units that have already been made. Spirit AeroSystems said they don’t think this will mess up their delivery plans for the year.
Not the First Time
This isn’t the first time Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems have had to deal with manufacturing issues this year. Earlier, Spirit AeroSystems found another problem with the aft fuselage. And when Boeing shared its Q2 2023 results, they talked about a previous defect related to how the aft fuselage and the vertical tail get joined together. Despite these bumps, Boeing was still planning to ramp up production. They were aiming to make 38 planes a month and had plans to bump that up to 50 a month by 2025-2026.
Boeing also got some good news. They found out that the new issue isn’t a safety concern. That means planes that are already flying, like the active Boeing 737 MAX and P-8 Poseidon fleet, can keep on flying.
Boeing is having to rethink its 2023 delivery goals for the 737 MAX due to a new manufacturing issue found by Spirit AeroSystems. This is the second such issue this year, but both companies are on it, making changes to avoid future problems. And for now, the planes that are already up in the air are safe to fly.
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