The Boeing 737 Max has been in the news because of two crashes, practically back to back and involving brand new airplanes. The 737 Max was designed to fly like the popular 737. This was an attractive proposition for the company because they need not have to go to safety regulators for new norms. The new 737 Max needed a larger engine, the over-sized engines required a structural change to the airframe of the plane. But structural changes are expensive. Hence for economic reasons Boeing decided to fix it in the software way. 

What is “software way of fixing”.

In 1994, the iconic Pentium processors were affected by what was known as the FDIV bug. It affected only a tiny fraction of Pentium users. But the effects on the company were quite pricey. In 1994 Intel recalled the (slightly) defective processors and it did cost the company $475 million, a significant portion of the net income in those years.

While Intel was struggling to match up to the investor’s maths, the other company was riding the tide. That company was none other than Microsoft. You may recollect the biggest embarrassment Bill gates had once.

Microsoft chairman was demonstrating the plug and play features of their new operating system to a group of influential people, very large audience,pin-drop silence, everyone was excited and looking up to bill gates for his maverick act, but all he got was Blue Screen of Death (BSoD), and a “whoah…”. 

Windows had major bugs, but Microsoft addressed these errors with periodic software updates, that cost them nothing compared to Intel. But it created a cultural change in the way people look at errors. Even when people know that things are not complete when they leave their premises, they care nothing. Because they realized they didn’t have to be complete. People are not perfect so is my product. The job could be done at any time in the future with an update. But this created cultural laziness within the community.

They are following “shoot first, ask questions later” philosophy.

Boeing tried to copy this philosophy. They knew that 737 Max required a serious investment to make it happen, but they let it go until the error is uncovered by their customers. They relied on probability theory, optimism, and GOD. But at the end of the day, they have lost more money and most importantly the trust of their customers.

Ironically I have experienced this in my career. I relied upon “shoot first” theory for one of our customers in the past and it backfired. Luckily I was not building an airplane, hence the damage was contained. But I may not be lucky next time.