Boeing’s new boss Kelly Ortberg will meet factory workers near Seattle on Thursday and pledged to be closer to the U.S. planemaker’s production lines, as he faces the steep task of “restoring trust,” according to a message to employees seen by Reuters.
The former Rockwell Collins boss on Thursday is taking over as head of the U.S. planemaker, which is bleeding cash and beset by company-wide problems expected to take years to fix.
Ortberg’s extensive to-do list includes mending relationships with airlines and employees, boosting output, repairing company finances and securing a labor deal to avoid a possible worker strike this year.
Ortberg, 64, said he plans to be based in Seattle to be close to Boeing’s commercial airplane programs, such as the 737 MAX whose production has slowed following a Jan. 5 mid-air panel blowout on a near-new model. Boeing is currently producing about 25 MAX jets a month, with a target of 38 per month by year-end.
“Because what we do is complex, I firmly believe that we need to get closer to the production lines and development programs across the company,” he wrote in the letter. “In fact, I’ll be on the factory floor in Renton today, talking with employees and learning about challenges we need to overcome.”
Ortberg also plans to visit employees at Boeing’s key supplier Spirit AeroSystems in Wichita, Kansas, next week, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. Last month Boeing agreed to buy back Spirit Aero, whose core plants it spun off in 2005, for $4.7 billion in stock.
“Soon I’ll be visiting many of our sites and I look forward to meeting with teammates around the world,” the letter said.
“Restoring trust starts with meeting our commitments — whether that’s building high quality, safe commercial aircraft, delivering on defense and space products that allow our customers to meet their mission,” Ortberg added in the note.
“People’s lives depend on what we do every day, and we must keep that top of mind with every decision we make.”
(Reporting By Allison Lampert in Montreal and David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Josie Kao)
