Boeing rep Tim Lee updated his LinkedIn profile to indicate he no longer works at Boeing and is “retired” and “self-employed.” The move was expected, as Boeing lost all rights to participate in AS9100 development at IAQG, and his colleague Alan Daniels was already booted, as reported last week.
I figured Lee would be let go at the same time, since apparently Boeing was only paying Lee and Daniels for their AS9100 work. With no committee meetings to go to, Boeing had no internal use for either man. Which is strange by itself.
It’s expected that Lee will turn his work at IAQG into a consulting gig, much like former Lockheed rep Buddy Cressionnie had done previously. Groan.
Despite not being a fan of Lee, and wondering (out loud) about his credentials to even be writing AS9100, it does suck that IAQG is punishing Boeing where European companies like Airbus and Safran have had fine put on them by the Dept. of Justice for things even worse than what Boeing has done. Both companies were found to have bribed officials (in Safran’s case, Chinese officials), and Airbus paid a fine that eclipsed what was handed to Boeing. But the IAQG has leaned into the Europeans now, isolating US companies on the committees.
Maybe we will see an improvement in the next edition of AS9100? Maybe they will finally break from ISO, and dump the flawed core text?
Don’t count on it. My spider sense tells me the Europeans will follow ISO even more closely and pump AS9100 full of feel-good, off-topic stuff and UN directives. Losing Lee was probably a good thing for the standard, but be careful what you wish for, as they say.
Christopher Paris is the founder and VP Operations of Oxebridge. He has over 30 years’ experience implementing ISO 9001 and AS9100 systems, and helps establish certification and accreditation bodies with the ISO 17000 series. He is a vocal advocate for the development and use of standards from the point of view of actual users. He is the writer and artist of THE AUDITOR comic strip, and is currently writing the DR. CUBA pulp novel series. Visit www.drcuba.world
