Boeing has decided to halt production temporarily of its 737 Max airplanes. Since the crashes earlier in the year, Boeing has continued to produce planes in anticipation of approval by the Federal Aviation Administration for the plane to fly again. Instead, orders have all but ceased for the plane, and over 400 aircraft are already sitting as finished goods at Boeing. Boeing decided to shut down production temporarily, given the excess inventory in stock. However, Boeing plans to shift its focus to delivering the planes in inventory. Boeing seeks to minimize the long-term impact on production and suppliers with this temporary halt.

Questions:

1. Research the Boeing 737 Max on the web. What happened to this plane? Was it a poor quality management program that failed to catch the defects? Was it a poor training for pilots? Was it a poor manufacturing process? Was it a combination of issues?

2. If pilot training is important, what could Boeing have done to better prepare pilots around the world for this new aircraft?