Product safety depends on a culture that is rooted in transparency, accountability, and every person feeling safe and empowered to speak up when they have a concern or make a mistake affecting product safety. This reporting culture is at the heart of Boeing’s Safety Management System. In 2019 Boeing established a confidential reporting channel called Speak Up for employees to voice their concerns about product quality and safety and offer ideas for how to improve.
Nothing is more important than safety
Safety is, and always will be, a foundational value. We are committed to strengthening our culture of safety through continuous improvement, learning and innovation. This requires a daily commitment, and we pledge to remain focused, vigilant and humble in our work.
Our team members have a deep and personal commitment to the safety of Boeing products and services. Every employee is empowered and encouraged to speak up if they have any safety or quality concern.
Updates on Boeing’s actions to strengthen safety and quality
Safety is personal for Boeing teammates
The Boeing team is dedicated to ensuring every person who flies on, uses, operates, designs, builds or services Boeing products gets home safely. Click below to hear their stories.
“My main commitment to Boeing is to ensure that for everything that we do, the fingerprints of safety are all over it. There isn't a single stone that goes unturned in all of the decisions that we make.”
“My youngest son is an aviation professional who just graduated with a degree in aviation science. One day, he will be flying our products. What we do today matters deeply to me.”
“As a first-line manager, my job is to come in and listen to my team, above all else. I really focus on pushing my team to speak up, because we know when people speak up then we are going to have safer products.”
“Safety is at the heart of everything that we do. You can see this through our improved focus on engineering excellence and in our increased focus on safety oversight and the way we deal with regulators. We want to be open and transparent when it comes to safety.”
“What really impassioned me about safety happened in 1998 when my parents were unfortunately killed in an aviation accident.”
“I work with a sense of duty as a software engineer any defect. We are doing our best to ensure safety.”
“When I think about the people that operate our products, I just really want everyone to know that we’re thinking about them every single day. Every decision we make, we’ve got their back.”
“We will always be working on our aircraft and improving our aircraft, which directly affects safety.”
“I talk a lot about the Speak Up system and the different ways that you can report things. As a manager myself, I think that's really important to allow people to feel like they're backed up, that it's safe to bring something up.”
“We have the privilege to directly work with customers and that comes with a lot of responsibilities. If everybody speaks up … then it's a positive environment. We don't have to wait for an event to happen to learn our lesson.”
- Khatwa
- Northcott
- Wolkiewicz
- Lowe
- Plumleigh
- Kang
- Hall
- Tinnesand
- Kros
- Ma
Our Values
In everything we do, we make safety a foundational value, strive for first-time quality and hold ourselves accountable to the highest ethical standards.
Our Mission
To foster a culture that ensures the safety, quality and compliance of our products and services for those who depend on, operate, build and maintain our products.
Trust and Transparency
We are engaging with each other and all of our stakeholders with greater transparency and accountability in every aspect of the business.
Continuous Learning
We remain committed to listening, learning with humility and continuous improvement.
As part of an effort to foster a learning culture, Boeing developed an immersive, interactive tool that shows pivotal moments in history that have led to advancements in aerospace safety. Originally developed for Boeing employees, the Aerospace Safety Timeline is now available to the public and serves as an extensive learning and research tool that spans from the Wright Brothers’ first flight to modern-day space exploration. Learn more about the Safety Experience at Boeing, a continuous learning initiative for employees.
Governance and Compliance
We operate in a manner that upholds our values, emphasizes accountability, and ensures an unrelenting focus on product integrity and compliance.
Boeing Safety Management System
Boeing’s Safety Management System
Recognized worldwide as an industry best practice, SMS is an integrating framework for managing safety risks. Boeing’s SMS collects and monitors data to identify and reduce product safety risks. It relies on all those involved in the design, build, support and operation of Boeing products and services to speak up when they see safety risks.
Speak Up: Fostering Transparency and Openness
Boeing Safety Management System Policy
In everything we do and in all aspects of our business, safety is our foundation. We strive for first-time quality and hold ourselves to the highest ethical standards as set forth in our Code of Conduct and company policies. That commitment begins at the highest levels of the company.
Our Progress
Our Safety Journey
We are implementing a series of meaningful changes to strengthen our quality and safety practices and culture and bring lasting improvements to aerospace safety. We are dedicated to making daily progress and holding ourselves accountable to the highest standards. Sharing our progress is an important aspect of our commitment to transparency. We will continue to provide information publicly about the changes we’re making to strengthen our culture, in addition to seeking critical feedback.
The CASO Report is a testament to Boeing's commitment to safety. Here are some highlights from advancements made in the last 12 months.
- Safety Culture
- Safety Practices
- Safety Collaborations
Increased efforts to encourage employees to use the Speak Up reporting channel resulted in a more than 500% increase in the number of submissions during the first two months of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023.
Conducted product safety training for more than 160,000 Boeing employees that reinforced the importance of speaking up about concerns or issues.
Introduced a digital learning platform to employees, enabling them to reflect, learn and apply safety lessons to their work.
Established SMS Boards within program and functional organizations responsible for design, build and fleet support to ensure a bottom-up approach in identifying and resolving potential safety risks.
Began a pathfinding effort to share additional operational data with engineering teams on how Boeing products are operating in the field, allowing design engineers to validate that designs are working as intended.
Expanded external safety data sources and developed machine learning algorithms with the FAA to identify emerging hazards and safety trends.
Continued the release of Design Practices to further strengthen the use of best practices and significantly increased the use of those practices during critical design activity through Technical Design Reviews.
Realigned the Boeing Internal Audit team in Commercial Airplanes Quality to report to the Chief Aerospace Safety Office to further the independence of the team to conduct their work as intended.
Named Chris Ferguson, former NASA astronaut and retired director of the CST-100 Starliner Program, as Deputy Chief Aerospace Safety Office for Human Space Flight to extend the foundation of safety of the Starliner Program in a systemic way across current and future space endeavors.
Expanded Competency-Based Training & Assessment programs to include five additional operators in 2023 for a total of nine customers.
Bolstered the global team of Flight Operations Representatives to enhance support to the aircrews of more than 170 global operators, more than double the number of pilot engagements from the previous year.
Increased industry and global regulatory engagement, including establishing a new liaison to support the International Civil Aviation Organization's efforts to advance a harmonized aviation ecosystem.
Expanded engagement with global safety and regulatory stakeholders to better understand regional safety issues, provide direct technical assistance where possible, foster the sharing of lessons learned from other parts of the world, and direct potential hazards into Boeing's SMS.
Facilitated an exchange of insights on industry challenges with airline Safety, Training and Flight Operations leaders during the second annual Boeing Aviation Safety Conference.
Products
Safety is at the core of who we are and what we do. Boeing leverages its legacy of innovation and existing safety assurance practices to ensure product safety.
Safety by Design
Safety is the primary consideration when Boeing engineers design an airplane. In addition to meeting regulatory requirements before certification, each airplane model must meet Boeing’s time-proven design standards. Often these standards are more stringent than regulatory requirements.
Testing
Boeing airplanes are rigorously tested to ensure they meet or exceed design standards and certification requirements.
There are many kinds of tests. For example, structural strength is ensured by static and fatigue tests. Static tests apply maximum loads or pressure to validate the airplane’s ability to carry loads far greater than would be encountered under normal operational conditions.
Continuous Monitoring
Boeing continually monitors the performance of airplanes worldwide to identify opportunities to improve safety.
In-service events are analyzed through a formal, disciplined, safety process involving Boeing experts from a variety of technical disciplines, as well as senior and executive leaders.
Human Factors
Apart from airplane equipment and technology, Boeing studies and applies human factors engineering lessons to the design of commercial airplanes.
Boeing human factors experts gather information about human abilities, limitations and other characteristics and apply the data to tools, machines, systems and processes.
Working Together to Strengthen Aerospace Safety
Aviation safety depends on the collaboration of industry organizations and governments. Boeing works together with these stakeholders and airline operators to continuously advance safety in all aspects of the global air transportation system.
An example of this collaboration is the Commercial Aviation Safety Team (CAST), which comprises representatives from airlines, manufacturers, labor and government.
Accident Prevention and Investigation
Although the industry’s safety efforts focus on preventing accidents from occurring in the first place, a great deal of effort goes into investigating accidents to ensure they do not reoccur. Boeing is committed to its role in helping all stakeholders understand the data associated with airplane accidents.
Read the Statistical Summary of Commercial Jet Airplane Accidents.
Employee Safety
An essential part of product safety includes ensuring the safety of those who design, build and support our products and services. Boeing’s workplace safety initiative Go4Zero strives for a goal of zero injuries, guided by the belief that every injury is preventable. The Go4Zero Safety Guiding Principles provide a framework to achieving this goal so every person who works at or visits a Boeing site leaves as safe and healthy as when they arrived.
Safety Guiding Principles
Our Safety Guiding Principles are the foundation of safety at Boeing. Each principle addresses a specific aspect of a healthy safety culture. Built around the concepts of safe decision-making and a commitment to protecting each other, the Guiding Principles guide the Go for Zero—One Day at a Time effort across the company, from frontline employee to CEO.
- We value human life and well-being above all else and take action accordingly.
- All incidents, injuries and workplace illnesses are preventable.
- We are personally accountable for our own and collectively responsible for each other’s safety.
- By committing to safety first, we advance our goals for quality, cost and schedule.
Celebrating 10 years of Go4Zero
More than ten years ago, Go4Zero was introduced to help increase safety in our workplace. Boeing has made impressive safety strides since 2013, but we know our safety journey is never done.
26%
decrease in serious injuries
(since 2015)
62%
decrease in recordable injuries
(since 2013)
71%
decrease in lost workday cases
(since 2013)
71%
decrease in ergonomic injuries
(since 2013)
Sustainability
We are focused on innovating and operating to make the world better for future generations through environmental stewardship, social progress and values-driven governance.
737 Updates
Airlines around the world have been safely operating the 737 MAX in service since the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and other global regulations have approved 737-8 and 737-9 operations. This return to service followed a thorough certification effort that included the design, testing and review of enhancements to airplane systems and increased pilot training.
