New York (CNN Business) Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg has been stripped of his role as chairman as the company struggles to get its grounded 737 Max jets cleared to fly again.

The company's board of directors on Friday said the move was an effort to strengthen "safety management," and Muilenburg will continue as CEO, president and a director. The board elected current independent lead director David L. Calhoun to serve as non-executive chairman, the company said in a statement.

"The board said splitting the chairman and CEO roles will enable Muilenburg to focus full time on running the company as it works to return the 737 MAX safely to service, ensure full support to Boeing's customers around the world, and implement changes to sharpen Boeing's focus on product and services safety," the statement said.

The board's move to split the CEO and chairman roles came the same day as a new report from the Joint Authorities Technical Review faulted both the Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing for failures in the overall certification of the 737 Max.

Tesla TSLA The chairman position is a non-executive position, running the board meetings and communicating with shareholders. The CEO is the most important day-to-day position at the company. But stripping a CEO of a chairman title he or she already holds is generally seen as a slap. For example,CEO Elon Musk had to give up the chairman position at the company to settle a complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission that his tweets had deceived shareholders. Technically the chairman oversees the CEO, and can move to have him or her replaced.

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