Safety is foundational to all that we do at Boeing — in the workplace and in the products we design, build and support. Fostering a culture rooted in safety, our goal is to create products and deliver services for the benefit of our commercial and defense customers and the flying public.
Boeing has taken concrete actions, including governance reforms, leadership changes, sustained investment, operational improvements, stronger supplier oversight, enhanced training, and better reporting, to reinforce Boeing’s long-standing commitment to safety and quality. We are committed to earning the trust of regulators, customers, employees, and the flying public every day through continuous, measurable improvement.
With a Boeing commercial airplane taking off somewhere across the globe every two seconds and moving millions of passengers annually, we work to ensure air travel stays the safest mode of transportation in the world.
Culture change is central to Boeing’s work. We continue to evolve how we think about, talk about, and act on safety. We have prioritized investments in safety, quality and infrastructure and continue to enhance practices and systems that mitigate risk.
Boeing does not work alone. Regulators provide important oversight of certification, production readiness and safety improvements, and we engage closely with customers, industry experts and independent auditors to ensure our processes are rigorous and transparent.
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Between 2023 and 2025, Speak Up reports from Boeing teammates nearly quadrupled as we strengthened our Safety Management System (SMS), mandatory SMS training, and enhancements to confidentiality and reporting tools. That reporting feeds data-driven investigations and cross-enterprise lessons so leaders can close issues faster and reduce risk.
Delivering quality with a focus on integrity, safety and sustainability is fundamental to our mission.
Maintaining Boeing-wide Safety Management System (SMS) and Quality Management System (QMS) based in Positive Safety Culture is recognized worldwide as an industry-best practice. An 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.
Safety Promotion is central to Boeing’s Safety Management System because it keeps safety as a shared value. To reinforce that commitment, Boeing created the Safety Experience featuring an interactive Aerospace Safety Timeline – originally developed for employees, this tool is now available to the public. The timeline traces key moments in aerospace history from the Wright Brothers to modern space exploration as a comprehensive product safety learning and research resource.
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.
Boeing has taken multiple steps: enhanced Speak Up reporting, expanded training (including the new Leaders in Foundational Training program and updated Foundational Training Centers), completed and operationalized Safety & Quality Plan actions, re-established employee involvement teams, instituted independent internal audits and strengthened oversight and governance. We also adopted new Boeing Values and Behaviors to drive culture change, and each quarter teammates across the company gather for a “Safety and Quality Promise” to discuss further opportunities for improvement.
Examples of concrete safety and quality steps at Boeing include: mandatory product safety and quality training; added 600+ hours of curriculum for new employees in Foundational Training; simplified more than 10,000 work instructions; established a “move ready” criteria to assess airplane production line moves, reducing traveled work; increased inspections and work-in-process parts tracking; deployed additional tool control measures including RFID tracking in select areas; created Human Factors chief engineer role; and implemented six key performance indicators to monitor production health. One of the outcomes of these safety and quality steps has been improvement in rework hours. In the first quarter of 2026, our rework hours improved by 25% as compared to the first quarter of 2025.
Boeing’s production rate increases follow a disciplined, rate-readiness process which is guided by Boeing’s Safety & Quality Plan and key performance indicators agreed upon by the FAA. Boeing monitors factory health and supply chain readiness before proceeding.
No. Boeing employees are not retaliated against for speaking up. As part of Boeing’s Just Culture, which is part of a Positive Safety Culture, Boeing strictly prohibits retaliation against employees for reporting safety and quality concerns. To that end, we regularly review our policies and procedures to ensure employees have reporting options that are trusted, accessible, and non-punitive. “We’ve received a large increase in Speak Up submittals recently, and we encourage that. It means our teammates are more comfortable raising issues, and it helps Boeing become a more transparent workplace.” - Julie Brightwell, 737 Chief Project Engineer, 2025 Chief Aerospace Safety Report
Boeing shares information about its safety and quality commitments through its Safety & Quality Plan, safety reports and other public materials. You can find an overview of this work, including key initiatives, training and processes at boeing.com/strengthening-safety-and-quality.
