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Quality is a very important issue in most if not industries, as companies grow quality's
importance into every situation grow and if not, issues can arise. One major example of this
would be airline industry. I work at Pratt & Whitney, a major airplane engine manufacturer, we
recently have heard of a major Boeing 777 quality issue as such that would be a very strong
example of quality issues. Due to the safety considerations on aerospace, quality is always held
very highly with many safeguards and controls. We must treat quality strongly as any mistake in
quality can hold hundreds if not thousands of lives in risk.
Pratt & Whitney was incorporated in 1925 as the Pratt and Whitney Aircraft Company.
(FundingUniverse, 2021). A group led by group led by Frederick Rentschler set out to build the
company as the development of their first engine, the wasp engine, was being done in a garage
and quickly outgrew its space (Owens & Singer, 2021). Pratt & Whitney have long created
dependable engines in U.S. Aviation. In 1929 they broke ground in the current home of Pratt &
Whitney, East Hartford, CT. In its height in 1940 they had over 40,000 employees' in over 9
million square feet of space (Owens & Singer, 2021). During WW2 and on Pratt & Whitney has
powered many aircraft including the B-52 bomber, Boeing 747, and working on J91 nuclear
powered engines. Pratt & Whitney's PW4000 engine was decidedly chosen as the only engine for
the Boeing 777's. From there they have acquired many contracts from different aerospace
manufacturers, one of the latest being the sole engine provider for the F-35 fighter.
One major quality issue that Pratt & Whitney has had of late is an engine explosion on a
Boeing 777 airliner on February 20th, 2021. A 777 had recently departed Denver, Colorado,
heading for Honolulu, Hawaii. The Pratt & Whitney engine blade had broken off, where it caught
fire and the plane was forced to return to Denver airport, luckily no one was injured. From this
incident more then 120 Boeing 777 planes were grounded pending inspection of the PW4000
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engines, mainly their blades. It was determined that a blade broke off during flight, halfway
through its inspection cycle, and had caused the damage. The FAA had ordered immediate
inspections of the fan blades in those engines. The blade was last inspected in 2016, where the
inspection cycle was every 6500 flights recommendation and it had occurred around 3000
(Chokshi, 2021). They had lowered the inspection to every 1000 flights in the meantime as the
investigation continues.
Working at Pratt & Whitney I definitely believe that the quality culture unfortunately is
split. Quality within Pratt is always put first, however due to pressures from management as well
as delivery pressure quality can sometimes skip through the cracks. I would not put the blame on
management or personnel in general however there is times where, mainly front-line production,