Recovery of the 737 Program Is Unglamorous and Arduous: Boeing Exec

Why It Matters

Restoring 737 output is critical for Boeing to satisfy airline demand, rebuild market share, and regain investor confidence after years of setbacks.

Key Takeaways

• Boeing producing 42 737s monthly as of late 2025
• Goal: increase to 52, then 63 aircraft per month
• North Line activation planned mid‑year to boost capacity
• Cultural overhaul and SMS decisions central to recovery
• Staffing new line remains major challenge for Boeing

Pulse Analysis

The 737’s resurgence reflects a broader industry lesson: prolonged safety scandals can cripple production pipelines and erode customer trust. After the 2018‑19 MAX crashes and the 2024 door‑plug incident, Boeing faced regulatory scrutiny, order cancellations, and a tarnished brand. By instituting a rigorous Safety Management System and halting the line to enforce supplier quality, the company has begun to rebuild its internal processes, setting a new baseline for aerospace manufacturing standards.

Increasing output to 52‑63 aircraft per month hinges on the North Line, Boeing’s first new 737 assembly line in five decades. This facility will supplement the existing Renton plant, allowing parallel workflows that reduce bottlenecks. Yet the ramp‑up is labor‑intensive; experienced Renton technicians must relocate, while a fresh cohort in Everett requires accelerated training. Supply‑chain coordination, especially for critical components, must align with the higher cadence, or the planned incremental five‑unit boosts every six months could stall.

For airlines, a steadier 737 supply eases fleet‑renewal plans and supports route expansion, directly influencing ticket pricing and capacity. Competitors like Airbus stand to gain if Boeing’s ramp‑up falters, making the successful staffing and scaling of the North Line a strategic imperative. Investors watch these metrics closely, as consistent delivery restores revenue forecasts and mitigates the financial fallout from past grounding events. Ultimately, Boeing’s ability to marry cultural reform with operational scale will determine whether the 737 regains its position as the world’s most produced commercial jet.

Recovery of the 737 program is unglamorous and arduous: Boeing exec

By Scott Hamilton · Feb. 10, 2026

Katie Ringgold, VP and General Manager of the 737 program. Credit: Boeing.

Boeing’s head of the 737 program yesterday outlined how the company is recovering from six years of crisis, quality‑control and safety issues, and repeated production slowdowns and shutdowns.

Katie Ringgold, the Vice President and General Manager, was speaking at the annual Pacific Northwest Aerospace Alliance (PNAA) conference in suburban Seattle. She said the long road to recovery—​which still has a few years more to go—has been an “unglamorous” task.

“We took time to deeply reflect on our production system. And some of that you know of what we’ve been accomplishing over the last two years. And make meaningful and arduous changes,” she said. “And I use that word intentionally. It wasn’t just hard changes. It was arduous changes.”

Ringgold noted that Boeing is now producing the 737 at a rate of 42 aircraft per month. This rate was achieved in the final months of last year. Boeing has repeatedly said its goal is to increase the production rate in increments of five approximately every six months.

During her stage appearance, Ringgold confirmed reporting by LNA that the 737’s North Line at the Everett wide‑body plant will be activated about mid‑year. LNA noted that Boeing’s current 737 production plant in Renton will be capped at 47 aircraft per month. The North Line will be needed for Boeing to achieve a rate of 52 and beyond, ultimately toward a target of 63 aircraft per month.

Three biggest influencers

Ringgold was named program head shortly after the Jan. 5 2024 accident in which a door plug on a new 737‑9 MAX blew out on an Alaska Airlines flight that had just departed Portland (OR). There were minor injuries but no deaths in the resulting decompression. The accident started yet another crisis for Boeing that delayed by nearly two years its progress in recovering from the 2018/19 fatal crashes of two MAXes that killed 346 people.

Ringgold said that, in her view, there are three overarching principles Boeing has pursued in fixing the 737 program:

1. “Number one, a genuine commitment to assessing our culture and making positive change.”

2. “The second thing is a decision to stop the line. In 2024, we essentially went to a rate zero. We demanded a level of quality improvement from one of our major suppliers integral to our business. And it was a tough decision.”

3. “Number three, a documented and disciplined method to make SMS‑based decisions on line boards at our factory level—not made at the leadership team level. My phone was no longer ringing at 11 o’clock at night because we had a disciplined process where the working team at the airplane level made appropriate decisions on when and if the aircraft was safe to move forward.”

SMS (Safety Management System) is a system Boeing voluntarily adopted after the two fatal MAX crashes, but which had not in practice been considered mandatory.

People

As Boeing prepares to open the North Line—the fourth production line for the 737 and the first outside the main Renton factory in 50 years—the company must transfer and hire people to staff the line.

“I personally believe I was selected to lead the 737 program at such a critical, really crisis moment in our history because of my love for people. And so, as I started thinking about what the North Line was missing, it’s missing the most important thing we need.”

Activating a new production line in Everett requires the transfer of some 737‑experienced line workers from Renton, the training of Everett‑based workers who have not built 737s before, and the hiring and training of new staff. Ringgold acknowledged that Boeing is challenged staffing the North Line at this stage.

The learning curve for all workers on the new line takes time. LNA believes that reaching a rate of 52 aircraft per month will slip to next year, and that a possible delay of perhaps a year to reach 47 aircraft per month represents a significant change from previously announced goals.