In a somewhat shocking turn of events, Alan Daniels has been let go from Boeing after a 44-year career. Daniels was one of the key architects of the AS9100 standard and also headed up the US TAG to TC 176, which develops the ISO 9000 family of standards.

I’ve been critical of both organizations, and even Daniels a bit, but this move is cold even for me. First, European forces within the IAQG, like Airbus and Safran, are using Boeing’s recent quality disasters and self-owned PR nightmare to grab power for themselves at the IAQG. They managed to convince the new IAQG President, Eric Jeffries of Textron (who owns Bell Helicopter), that because of US penalties Boeing is being forced to pay for its recent scandals, everyone from Boeing had to be eliminated from IAQG committees. This is a huge change, since Daniels and his Boeing co-worker Tim Lee were two of the most influential authors of the AS9100 standard.

Now, I have not been happy with the way AS9100 has gone, since I don’t think they have gone far enough to fix the flaws embedded into the ISO 9001 core text. I also think the IAQG team that writes AS9100 has been too smug and insulated, refusing any voices that didn’t agree with their predetermined (and sometimes batshit crazy) ideas. So part of me is enjoying watching the upheaval.

But a lot of this isn’t fair, either. Other prominent companies in IAQG, like Pratt and RTX (Raytheon), have similar penalties and fines levied against them by the US Dept. of Justice, and they enjoy ongoing protection. Heck, Safran had to pay $17.2 million in fines for bribing China. Airbus had to pay a whopping $3.9 billion (with a “b”) for ITAR violations and bribery. Why the heck are they still on the IAQG? At least Boeing wasn’t bribing anyone; they were just making airplanes with hot glue and Legos. (In contrast, Boeing is only being forced to pay $2.5 billion, far less than Airbus.)

I’m no fan of Boeing, but this whole thing smells like sharks just eating away at a drowning man. They’re still sharks.

Daniels was let go, I’m told, because his role at Boeing wasn’t needed anymore, since he had been booted out of the IAQG. So, wait: Boeing was paying a guy just to go to IAQG meetings? That, in itself, suggests some problems with Boeing, not necessarily the guy. (Heck, I’d take their money, too, if they were dumb enough to pay me to do that.) They had a QMS expert on staff and were sending him to help other companies build QMSs, rather than fix their own. Got it.

Which is not to suggest Daniels could have fixed Boeing; that company’s problems are bigger than any one man. However, it does show Boeing may not know how to manage its newfound troubles, no matter what this new CEO says. You mean, the solution for fixing your QMS problems is to fire the guy who goes around the world literally setting QMS standards for the entire industry? That seems a bit shortsighted.

Frankly, Daniels is better off. Boeing is a shit-show, and everything they touch turns to lead. And lead doesn’t fly very well, much like their airplanes. The downside is he might become a consultant — God help him — like his buddy Buddy Cressionnie, who left Lockheed to do so. They will all quickly find out that there’s no money in consulting unless you have an equivalent level of expertise in marketing. And they never do. Consultants are all broke, they just never admit it.

So the next question is when Tim Lee will get fired, too? So far no word on that, but I would suspect it’s coming. [UPDATE 27 Nov 2024: it happened.]

For now, Daniels is still at the US TAG, but may be stepping down as Chair due to term limits. I’m told he will be taking on some other ISO 9001-related role, however.

 

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ISO 45001 Implementation