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Recovery of the 737 program is unglamorous and arduous: Boeing exec
By Scott Hamilton
Katie Ringgold, VP and general manager of the 737 program. Credit: Boeing.
Feb. 10, 2026, © Leeham News: Boeing’s head of the 737 program yesterday outlined how the company is recovering from six years of crisis, quality control and safety issues and repeated production slowdowns and shutdowns.
Katie Ringgold, the Vice President and General Manager, was at the annual Pacific Northwest Aerospace Alliance (PNAA) conference in suburban Seattle, said the long road to recovery—which has a few years more to go—has been an “unglamorous” task.
“We took time to deeply reflect on our production system. And some of that you know of what we’ve been accomplishing over the last two years. And make meaningful and arduous changes,” she said. “And I use that word intentionally. It wasn’t just hard changes. It was arduous changes.”
Ringgold noted that Boeing is now producing the 737 at the rate of 42 aircraft per month. This rate was achieved in the final months of last year. Boeing publicly has repeatedly said its goal is to increase the production rate in increments of five approximately every six months.
Ringgold, during her stage appearance, confirmed reporting by LNA in January that the 737’s North Line at the Everett widebody plant will be activated about mid-year. In this report, LNA noted that Boeing’s current 737 production plant in Renton will be capped at a rate of 47/mo. The North Line will be needed for Boeing to achieve rate 52 and beyond, ultimately toward a target of 63/mo.
Three biggest influencers
Ringgold was named program head shortly after the Jan. 5, 2024, accident in which a door plug on a new 737-9 MAX blew out on an Alaska Airlines flight that had just departed the Portland (OR) airport. There were minor injuries but no deaths in the resulting decompression. The accident started yet another crisis for Boeing that delayed by nearly two years its progress in recovering from the 2018/19 fatal crashes of two MAXes that killed 346 people.
Ringgold said that in her view, there are three overarching principals Boeing has pursued in fixing the 737 program.
“Number one, [there is] a genuine commitment to assessing our culture and making positive change,” she said.
“The second thing is a decision to stop the line. In 2024, we essentially went to a rate zero. We demanded a level of quality improvement from one of our major suppliers integral to our business. And it was a tough decision.”
Finally, she said, “Number three, a documented and disciplined method to make SMS-based decisions on line boards at our factory level. Not made at the leadership team level. My phone was no longer ringing at 11 o’clock at night because we had a disciplined process where the working team at the airplane level made appropriate decisions on when and if the aircraft was safe to move forward.”
SMS is a Safety Management System that Boeing voluntarily adopted after the two fatal MAX crashes, but which had not in practice been considered mandatory.
People
As Boeing prepares to open the North Line, the forth production line for the 737 and the first outside of the main Renton factory in 50 years, Boeing must transfer and hire people to staff the line.
“I personally believe I was selected to lead the 737 program at such a critical really crisis moment in our history because of my love for people. And so, as I started thinking about what the North Line was missing, it’s missing the most important thing we need.”
Activating a new production line in Everett requires the transfer of some 737-experienced line workers from Renton, using and training Everett-based line workers who have not built 737s before, and new hires who also require training. Ringgold acknowledged that Boeing is challenged staffing the North Line at this stage.
The learning curve for all workers on the new line takes time. LNA believes that reaching rate 52 will slip to next year. But the possibility of a delay of perhaps a year reaching rate 47 is a significant change from the previously announced goals.
“I personally believe I was selected to lead the 737 program at such a critical really crisis moment in our history because of my love for people. And so, as I started thinking about what the North Line was missing, it’s missing the most important thing we need.”
Here is a pro tip for her….check on the status of the new 8 Renton wing riveters put on order over 2 years ago (should have been in production 6 months ago) with a supplier that never built wing riveters! Also do a deep dive in the industry 4.0 requirements in spec and they will not be met!
Just saying