Boeing promotes nine to refocus on "engineering excellence"

Boeing has promoted nine senior engineering leaders, including three from the 787 program, in a bid to strengthen its "reputation for engineering excellence."

"Revitalizing the important role of such senior engineering leaders will help ensure engineering excellence in all our products," Chief Technology Officer John Tracy said in a message sent to Boeing managers after an annual retreat for the company's senior leadership at the Indian Wells resort near Palm Springs, Calif.

Three of the new engineering vice presidents are already leaders on the 787: Mike Delaney, chief project engineer for the 787 program; and the program's chief structures engineer, Jim Ogonowski; and systems chief engineer, Mike Sinnett.

They will continue to head their respective 787 units, while broadening their responsibilities to include future development programs.

Also inside the commercial-airplanes unit, Keith Leverkuhn becomes engineering vice president for propulsion systems.

In addition, five engineering vice presidents have been promoted inside the company's defense and space division.

Boeing's reputation has been dented by its problems on new airplane programs the last couple of years, in particular on the delayed 787 Dreamliner and 747-8 programs, Boeing spokesman Daryl Stephenson acknowledged.

"Those challenges have brought home that engineering leaders play a very important role in ensuring that we have engineering excellence and success," he said.

"We have come to recognize that Boeing is first and foremost an engineering company," Stephenson said. "We are very much interested in strengthening the engineering function as much as we can and placing it front and center in everything we do."

Boeing has come in for heavy criticism, particularly from the white-collar union the Society of Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), for ditching its traditional engineering-focused culture in favor of an emphasis on marketing and cutting costs in the development and manufacturing of airplanes.

Cynthia Cole, SPEEA president, wrote in the union's newsletter last month that engineers "are treated as costs to be cut or at least contained."

With that mentality, "what will happen to the Boeing brand name the world has come to trust and was once synonymous with quality," she asked rhetorically.

Stephenson said that as Boeing grew, especially after the mergers of the 1990s, it moved away from the management structure typical in the early days of aerospace, "more or less defined by central engineering figures who were dominant in their influence over design and the direction of the company."

"In a way, (today's elevation of the engineering leaders) is a return to a structure seen in the early days of the company," Stephenson said.

SPEEA spokesman Bill Dugovich expressed cautious approval of the initiative.

"We're hopeful this is a sign the company is returning to its engineering and technical roots," he said. "However, we're waiting to see if that actually occurs."

Dominic Gates: 206-464-2963 or dgates@seattletimes.com