The manufacturer still faces a difficult recovery

Boeing is embarking on another year of renewal.

A year ago, the company was again thrust into the spotlight over safety and quality concerns when a hull panel covering an unused emergency exit door blow out in the air from the almost new Boeing 737 Max 9 operated by Alaska Airlines. The crash terrified those on board, although no one was seriously injured, and the plane safely made an emergency landing in Portland, Oregon.

The key screws were not installed before the plane left Boeing’s Renton, Wash., 737 factory, a preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board found, again tarnishing picture the main American exporter.

Boeing’s share price has fallen more than 30% over the past 12 months, while the S&P 500 has risen nearly 27%.

Boeing executives have spent the past 12 months rolling out sweeping changes that stretch substitutions in its executive ranks, including a new chief executive officerto more intensive training for hundreds of factory workers, many of them new.

On Friday, the company outlined its progress over the past year, including the launch of random quality audits at factories. Boeing said it had “significantly” reduced defects in the fuselages of the 737s it built Spirit AeroSystemswho it’s redemptionand reduce so-called journey work, where aircraft construction tasks are performed out of sequence, in an effort to reduce defects. The manufacturer also said it addressed much of the employee feedback provided during management meetings during the year.

After the crash, the Federal Aviation Administration increased its oversight of Boeing, limiting its production of its best-selling 737 Max plane, even though production is still below that level. FAA chief Mike Whitaker, who said he would resign on January 20warned the company on Friday that “heightened surveillance will remain.”

He said Boeing’s turnaround “is not a one-year project.”

“What is needed is a fundamental cultural change at Boeing that focuses on safety and quality above profit. This will require continued effort and commitment from Boeing, and unwavering oversight on our part,” Whitaker said in a statement.

That year was the first of two fatal crashes of its 737 Max that killed 346 people — Boeing’s worst crisis in recent memory. AND flight control system was involved in both accidents, and the plane was grounded around the world for almost two years.

Other quality flaws have cropped up over the years, delaying deliveries of the 737 Max, 787 Dreamliner and the pair of 747s that will serve as Air Force One, among others.

As of 2019, Boeing has lost more than $30 billion, and its new CEO is tasked with making sure Boeing can ramp up production without the shortfalls that have slowed deliveries in the past.

In August, the company brought Kelly Ortbergformer CEO of Rockwell Collins with three decades of experience in aviation, as the new CEO of Boeing, replacing Dave Calhoun.

Weeks into Ortberg’s tenure, Boeing engineers went on strike almost two months, a work stoppage that ended after they approved a new four-year labor contract with 38% raises. Some longtime workers were looking for Boeing return pensionsbut it was not part of the new employment contract.

The strike, however, halted production of most Boeing planes, although factories have resumed production in recent weeks. It’s preparing Boeing for another year of focus stabilizing production to deliver aircraft to aircraft before further increases, while Airbus continues to lead Boeing in volume deliveries.

Boeing raised billions this fall to stave off the crisis. Ortberg also said the company would cut 10% of its workforce of around 170,000 people. The notices started going out at the end of last year. Ortberg said in October that the company needed to focus on its core businesses and would review its portfolio.

“I think we’re better off … doing less and doing it better than doing more and not doing well,” he said in his first earnings call in October.

He spent the first weeks of his tenure touring factories and moving to the Seattle area, where most of Boeing’s production is centered, and won praise from airline executives who grew bitterly with the company’s mobile aircraft delivery during the post-pandemic travel boom.

Bob Jordan, CEO of the Boeing 737 airline company Southwestwarned in an interview last month that it was “really early” for Boeing’s recovery, but said he thought Ortberg understood the depth of the company’s problems.

“He’s not looking at this as a Band-Aid. He’s looking at this as a big change for Boeing,” he said.