Boeing’s aircraft quality office will soon have a new leader.
On 11 November, the aircraft manufacturer said Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA) senior vice-president of quality Elizabeth Lund, who led the company’s public response to the January in-flight blow out of a 737 Max 9’s door plug, will retire in December.
Lund will be succeeded as head of quality by BCA president of supply change and fabrication quality Doug Ackerman.
BCA chief executive Stephanie Pope disclosed Lund’s pending departure in an email to staff, noting that Lund, a 33-year Boeing veteran, had previously planned to leave the company earlier.
“But in February, we asked her to take over BCA quality and drive the development of our safety and quality plan. In the months since, she and the team have worked tirelessly to advance our efforts,” says Pope’s email. “With the plan submitted to the FAA and well into implementation, Elizabeth shared with me her intention to retire in December.”
The change comes as Boeing works to get its Pacific Northwest production lines humming again after a nearly eight-week shut down due to a machinists’ strike. The company faces the critical task of maintaining quality and safety as it ramps output.
Lund had previously been Boeing’s vice-president of airplane programmes but in February became vice-president of BCA quality, then a newly created position. At the time, Boeing was scrambling to respond to the January door-plug incident, which involved an Alaska Airlines jet and which happened because Boeing workers in Renton failed to install four bolts intended to hold the plug in place.
In the role, Lund became the public face of Boeing’s efforts to improve quality and safety, helping lead a June outreach day during which Boeing hosted reporters in Seattle to discuss those efforts. During that meeting, Lund revealed details about production process failures involving the Alaska jet.
In response, Lund received a public rebuke from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which chastised her for releasing “non-public investigative information” and for making “unsubstantiated speculations about possible causes” of the event. Some industry observers, however, praised Lund’s transparency despite the NTSB’s criticism.
Incoming senior vice-president of quality Ackerman has played a “leading role” in the safety and quality plan spearheaded by Lund, Pope’s email says. “Doug brings to this role more than three decades of experience in engineering, operations and strategy.”
Ackerman joined Boeing in 1991 as a payloads engineer. Prior to his current role as BCA vice-president of supply chain and fabrication, Ackerman was director of supply chain engineering. He has also overseen supply chain strategy and worked as chief engineer for 777 configuration and certification.
“I can think of no better person to shepherd our quality efforts as we work through this dynamic time,” Boeing senior vice-president of global supply chain and fabrication Ihssane Mounir says of Ackerman in an email to staff. “I want to thank Doug for not only his leadership but also his steadfast and collaborative approach as we have systematically worked to improve our quality across the entire production system.”
Boeing’s director of commercial aircraft production and engineering Tracy Daly will succeed Ackerman as supply chain and fabrication quality leader.
