It remains the mystery at the heart of Boeing Co.’s 737 Max crisis: how a company renowned for meticulous design made seemingly basic software mistakes leading to a pair of deadly crashes. Longtime Boeing engineers say the effort was complicated by a push to outsource work to lower-paid contractors.
The Max software – plagued by issues that could keep the planes grounded months longer after U.S. regulators this week revealed a new flaw – was developed at a time Boeing was laying off experienced engineers and pressing suppliers to cut costs.
Increasingly, the iconic American planemaker and its subcontractors have relied on temporary workers making as little as $9 an hour to develop and test software, often from countries lacking a deep background in aerospace – notably India.
In offices across from Seattle’s Boeing Field, recent college graduates employed by the Indian software developer HCL Technologies Ltd. occupied several rows of desks, said Mark Rabin, a former Boeing software engineer who worked in a flight-test group that supported the Max.
The coders from HCL were typically designing to specifications set by Boeing. Still, “it was controversial because it was far less efficient than Boeing engineers just writing the code,” Rabin said. Frequently, he recalled, “it took many rounds going back and forth because the code was not done correctly.”
And Apple wants to move phone manufacture there? Good luck.
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[–] 19458128? ago
Intel - Intel was not founded by immigrants. It was founded by 2 Americans - Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore (of Moore's Law fame).
Yahoo! - Yahoo! was founded by one American - David Filo - and one immigrant - Jerry Yang. But Yang came to the U.S. at age 6 from Taiwan - a developed country. He was raised here and went to school here. He's more American than immigrant.
Google - Google was founded by one American - Larry Page - and one immigrant - Sergei Brin. But Brin came from Russia, not India or China - and he came here at age 3 and grew up here and was educated here. He's more American than immigrant.
Microsoft - Founded by two Americans - Bill Gates and Paul Allen.
Apple - Founded by two Americans - Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Apple is booming today. Why? Apple CLOSED its R&D in India in 2006 and hires mostly Americans for all of its software development. 0% of Apple's software development is done offshore.
Sun - Founded by 2 Americans, 1 German, and 1 Indian. Sun's CEO for the 1st 25 years was Scott McNeally - an American. Sun's operating system was architected by another American co-founder - Bill Joy. In 2001 Sun was taken over by legions of foreign guest workers from India and China - and Sun is now losing $150 million a quarter and is being sold off to Oracle to avoid the embarrassment of closing its doors with foreign guest workers running it.