Boeing concentrates on having diverse staff -- and is failing to build trustworthy airplanes

From a MANN reader:

Boeing is, or was, one of the foremost airplane manufacturers in the world.

Recently, they began to concentrate on diversity hiring. That's not specialisation diversity, which might have led to something completely different in aircraft design. It's just making sure that the identity groups their staff belong to are numerous. It seems that Boeing management think that being able to identify as a Boeing employee is no longer enough for Boeing employees.

Boeing proudly announce "In 2018 women comprised 49 percent of all manager hires and 26 percent of all executive hires, compared with 28 percent and 16 percent in 2017, respectively." The company's website states that "Boeing has made diversity and inclusion a strategic priority — and external validators have taken notice. On May 7, it was announced that Boeing ranked 32nd out of more than 1,800 companies that participated in DiversityInc’s 2019 Top 50 Companies for Diversity survey" In a chilling likeness to the USSR's political commissars in every factory, Boeing has 'Diversity Councils'  which seem to be involved with their diverse - and probably divisive - employee associations such as Boeing Asian Professional Association. Boeing Employee Pride Alliance and (or course) Boeing Women Inspiring Leadership and Boeing Men's Professional Association. Guess which one of those I just made up!

With all this concentration on diversity, they must be doing well, right? Even when diversity doesn't include that dwindling minority, the pale (and getting stale) men who made the company great.

But the Post and Courier is reporting that things aren't going so well. Under a headline of 'Airline surveys point to ongoing production problems at Boeing’s SC plant' their article points out that for the first time in its history, Boeing customers are going public with the range and seriousness of problems in 787 Dreamliner planes being delivered.

"For example, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines called the factory’s quality control “way below acceptable standards” for a 787-10 delivered at North Charleston in June. The plane included a special livery to celebrate the carrier’s 100th anniversary.

"KLM noted several issues, including a loose seat, missing or wrongly installed cotter pins, nuts not fully tightened, an unsecured fuel line clamp and several unspecified missing parts."

This is on top of recent problems with their other flagship (flagaerocraft?) product, the 737 MAX. Forbes reports that as a result of shoddy standards, in April Boeing cut production to 80% trying to improve matters.

The Continental Telegraph has an article on the matter under the heading of Nuts and Bolts. They list Boeing’s board of directors and point out that only one of the thirteen has even a degree in aerospace engineering. I suppose that's what diversity brings: having people who know about all kinds of stuff other than the business at hand.

Ah, you just can't get the staff these days .. or perhaps you could if only you stopped bothering so much about race and sex.