Dave Calhoun: Yeah. So Noah, I’ll address this one. First of all, I’m glad you asked about the six months. When I say six months, I’m talking about the first half of this year because remember, we commenced all of these actions the day after the Alaska Air accident. Our determination — the big factor here, in my view with respect to the essence of the question, is this move to eliminate traveled work in our factory and specifically and most importantly, the fuselage. So that action was commenced on March 1, inspection line in place, full inspections being performed in Wichita. Our rework teams with respect to non-conformances that were worked up in Seattle, those teams have been visiting regularly down to Wichita. And I fully expect – I fully expect for them to come up to rate with clean fuselages here as we get into the second half.
That, again, is the big productivity driver in the Renton factory. And the cycle time improvements also double up as capacity improvements for pretty much for us and for them. So that is the big question. The 30,000 ideas, that is a long list of stuff that just provides for continuous improvement from this day until forever. So that’s not something that all has to get processed and completed before we can sort of flip the switch and go. It’s quite the opposite. It is a set of continuous improvement concepts and ideas that we simply set out with our workforce and our leadership team over time. And that’s recognized by our employees and by our leadership team. So that’s how I think about this sequence.
Noah Poponak: Okay. Have you guys thought about framing and disclosing some version of that timeline of work maybe in big buckets or categories that you would provide to the investment community? Because it feels like everybody is guessing and has no visibility. And if you said, traveled work is one category, Wichita, I don’t know what the categories would even be. But if there was four or five of them, and you could provide an update on which are complete and how complete the other ones are as you report just some version of milestones that investors could follow on your progress here?
Dave Calhoun: I think that’s fair. Noah, the most important one, the essential one and that we will have to report as we close the second quarter is going to be the number of clean fuselages that we’re receiving from Wichita, and the prognosis for that going forward. So that will be the most essential part of the equation I think you’re trying to solve. I think all the other stuff, we’ll categorize for you. That’s not hard. We do it for the FAA. We do it for our own teams. But that is not going to be rate limiting. It’s not — none of that is going to factor into the rate limits. What is going to factor is this determination, it’s to make sure traveled work doesn’t come back to us and that Wichita is up to the rate increases.
Noah Poponak: Okay. Thank you.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question is from Kristine Liwag from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Kristine Liwag: Hey, good morning. Dave, Brian, you mentioned that the first half deliveries for the 737 will be under pressure as you focus on quality. But then again, stability of the supply chain is also a priority. So in the event that 737 MAX production and deliveries continue to be under pressure beyond the first half of this year, how long can you keep the supply chain at a higher rate? What does it mean to keep them stable? And then also as a follow-on to that, if this were to play out, can you talk about the puts and takes of free cash flow generation in the second half of the year?
Dave Calhoun: Yes, I’m sure Brian is going to answer this one, but let me start. We have a rate increase plan. And as everyone knows, it gets us up to 50 here as we get into that 2025, 2026 window. So our job now, given the slowdown here in these six months and then sort of the push out of those rate increases is to make sure we have all the inventory we need to satisfy that 50 number and have the buffers where they need to be to make sure that the supply chain can demonstrate the capacity to meet those numbers. So this slowdown, in my view, is an opportunity for us to shore up whatever supply chain issues were out there sort of one supplier at a time and to get there. Now, if we get to a moment because the slowdown has gone on too long, if we get to a moment where the buffers exceed that requirement, we will curtail but not until they exceed that requirement. Brian?
Brian West: Only thing I would add is that tactically, we have adjusted the master schedule at a supplier-by-supplier basis. It’s all out there. They know it. We will continue to pace final assembly in line with that master schedule so that we don’t sacrifice stability because what we’re talking about is a very important near-term investment that we have to stay laser-like focused on so that we don’t take a step back. And that’s what we’re focused on. And we believe that we can handle the cash flow fluctuations as we get through the first half into the second half and position ourselves for 2025.
Kristine Liwag: Great. Thank you for the color.
Operator: Thank you. And our next question is from Scott Deuschle, Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Scott Deuschle: Hey, good morning.
Dave Calhoun: Scott, good morning.
Scott Deuschle: Dave, could you further characterize what you’re seeing with respect to supply chain performance on the 87? And where the constraints are that are driving you to drop back below five a month? And then I’m curious if there’s been any change to the plan on the 777X ramp. Thank you.
Dave Calhoun: Yes, no change on the latter. But we really have two constraints to think about on the 87. One is discrete, it’s well understood and known, and it’s heat exchangers. This is a product that used to be built in Russia. When the invasion happened, it got moved, and the capacity of that supplier has not kept pace with us. But the improvement plan that we all see gets us where we need to be by the fourth quarter, and we have a lot of confidence in it. So again, discrete, well known, et cetera. The other one that is — that affects us is not necessarily our suppliers. But as you may know, the seat suppliers out there are in shorter capacity. A lot of that is buyer furnished, but nevertheless, it holds up an airplane.
