In the 2020s, a defining feature of Boeing has been the massive attempt to turn the fortunes of the multi-billion dollar aerospace company around. After all, redefining the recently-earned reputation of such a large corporation due to multiple manufacturing issues and aircraft accidents is no mean feat. Still, Boeing is persisting with this mammoth undertaking.
As part of this strategy to steer the company back onto the right track and towards profitability, there have been layoffs at Boeing facilities across the US. What role do they play in the company's larger plan to return to profitability and safety, and in which facilities are they being felt the most? How we got to employee layoffs Before we talk about the current staffing situation at Boeing, we first need to take a trip back into the history of the aerospace giant to understand how we got here. Boeing's manufacturing, aircraft, and reputation woes can, for the most part, be traced back to the company's merger with a fellow aerospace defense and civil aviation contractor McDonnell-Douglas in the late 1990s.
Prior to this merger, which was worth billions of dollars, there was a heavy culture of safety and decentralized decision-making at Boeing, which many argue was the defining hallmark that made the American aerospace company so great. Despite shifting ideas about how for-profit corporations such as Boeing should be run in the 1980s and '90s, the company's safety and engineering culture remained, with great and reli.