Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg tells Senate committee the company is reshaping safety and production controls

Kelly Ortberg, president and chief executive officer of the Boeing Company, told the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation that Boeing has enacted "sweeping changes" to people, processes and structure to restore safety and quality, and offered a string of specific corrective steps in response to recent manufacturing problems including last year’s door‑plug blowout on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282.

Ortberg said Boeing has worked with the Federal Aviation Administration under a plan that tracks key performance indicators (KPIs). He told senators the company has collected more than 26,000 employee improvement ideas, is simplifying processes, enhancing training and reducing supplier defects. "It’s unacceptable that an aircraft left our factory without that door plug properly installed," Ortberg said, describing actions Boeing took after the Alaska Airlines incident: field inspections with airlines and the FAA, retraining, narrowing who may remove or re‑install door plugs, and changes to the production flow to hold aircraft when safety risk assessments indicate…