Forbes had a good writeup a couple of weeks ago: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathansalembaskin/2013/01/10/boeing-has-an-airplane-problem-not-a-pr-problem/ htt

Forbes had a good writeup a couple of weeks ago: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathansalembaskin/2013/01/10/boeing-has-an-airplane-problem-not-a-pr-problem/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathansalembaskin/2013/01/10/b... Essentially, they coupled an ambitious design with untested materials and an insane plan by management to outsource far more work than they had ever outsourced before, going so far as to outsource the design and blueprints for individual pieces to external contractors, leading in the end to a clusterfuck in which nothing fit together and contractors had no incentives to perform efficiently because in the worst case Boeing would simply have to buy them wholesale to fix supply issues.