System Failure on Safety Culture

My son told me to “… watch the documentary on Netflix entitled “Downfall: The Case Against Boeing” for your safety. So, I did.  I have heard news about Boeing before but never had I put my attention to it until my son asked me to watch the documentary. Afterwards, I googled Boeing & its downfall, and this came up:

 “Management team who are accountant, financial controller and managers who are obsessed with cost savings” – EuroNews February 7, 2024

“Boeing is a great American company, but it is rotting. The rot comes directly from its leadership, leadership that got rich not because they are committed to building great airplanes, but by cutting costs and pushing out the skilled engineers who are the lifeblood of the company.” – Seattle Times, June 13, 2024 

“Today Boeing’s leaders are tepidly admitting that this shareholders-first, cut-costs, workers-be-damned strategy was flawed. But, for two decades, it worked.” – The Chronicle, April 9, 2024

“Boeing’s latest 737 Max disaster wipes out more than $13 billion in value as Wall Street sounds opening bell.” – Fortune, January 8, 2024

Everywhere I search, the trend is centered on – driven by cost reduction, shortcuts & greed (more money/profits). Now Boeing is under fire. Accumulating consequences of bad decisions, where shareholder wealth is more important than safety & quality.

As someone who is active in creating a safe culture onboard the vessel, as a trainer, everything in the documentary struck a chord with me. The core in our all trainings is about creating a safety culture. I always remind everyone during our sessions about the company’s mantra “the safer, the better”, and the golden rule that everyone is “empowered to intervene” when safety is compromised. However, all this stuff will just remain in paper if the structure that holds the system does not promote a safety culture. That being said, the role of management is vital in building a safety culture.

System Failure

Companies who adhere to Quality Management System places a significant toll on management in achieving operational excellence. If a company wishes to be certified, the ISO 9001:2015 have a detailed section on management responsibility. The crux of Boeing, which identifies its brand with quality and adheres to quality standards, is the discrepancy between what is published on their website and what the executives were saying about safety and quality in relation to the several recent tragedies of their products - 737 Max plane crash in Indonesia and Ethiopia, the recent Alaska airlines Boing 737 Max 9 door plug blew out and the engine fire in Atlas Air in Miami.

We could always tell or educate everyone to be safe and intervene when their safety is being compromised. However, when that call for intervention is not supported by management, then people on the ground who are actually doing the work will either feel disheartened or think that “maybe safety is not important after all” and the worst part is that when people become accustomed to shortcuts and convenience because they get immediate results. That is how important what the leaders and managers of the company values. If top management prioritizes short-term returns over long-term outcomes, then saying "the safer, the better" will be meaningless because there is a disconnect between the aspiration and the actions of the management that implements it.

In any firm or organization, no matter how wonderful the procedures and rules are on paper, if management is greedy, deceptive, and ethically unsound in all of its acts and decisions, everything will catch up with them. That indicates a system failure. When the structural support for the system fails. When people who runs the structure are dishonest. When the mindset is focused on a strategy that is flawed. Downfall will surely follow. Maybe not in the immediate future but in the long run, all the bad decisions will have a toll. Just look at what happened to Boeing.

Now the big question is, would you trust flying on Boeing?

#safety #safetyculture #management #decision #values #system #systemfailure