Boeing discovered that its largest supplier improperly drilled holes in a component that helps maintain cabin pressure of the 737 MAX jet, threatening to derail delivery targets for its bestselling model.
The latest issue for Boeing’s cash-cow jet isn’t a safety threat, the Federal Aviation Administration said Wednesday. But it’s another complication for Boeing as it speeds the manufacturing pace of the 737 family while dealing with supply-chain strains and the aftermath of a strike at Spirit AeroSystems, the supplier that builds about 70% of the narrowbody jet frames.
“During factory inspections, we identified fastener holes that did not conform to our specifications in the aft pressure bulkhead on certain 737 airplanes,” Boeing said via email Wednesday. The inspections have uncovered hundreds of misaligned and duplicated holes in some aircraft, according to a report by The Air Current.
I'm assuming that, nowadays, those parts get loaded into fixtures and a computer-driven gizmo drills the holes. So I don't have a clue how it could be screwed up.
But it seems that, if there is a way to fuck it up, Boeing will find it.
And hey, what do you need dead-nuts engineering and engineering for? Any MBA will tell you what counts is having spreadsheet wizards showing oddles of profit (and C-suite 'compensation' bonuses thereby). Jeez, you want something that flies too?
ReplyDeleteYepper
ReplyDeleteSome form of?
ReplyDeleteSomebody has to load the fixture(s) and then put the right tool(s) in the NC machine. QA is supposed to fit in here somewhere too.
The aft pressure bulkhead on Boeing passenger jets are made from thin aluminum pie shaped segments riveted together to form a half hemisphere dome. The Japan Air Lines 747, flight 123, that crashed in 1985 and killed 520 people had been incorrectly repaired by the Boeing Fly Away crew after a less serious accident in 1978. I watched the Boeing Fly Away crew working over several days in a hanger and they seemed very professional.
ReplyDeleteI suspect that the aft pressure bulkheads are still being drilled by hand because the dome is not a straight flat surface like the wings, which are done by computer controlled machines now.
I also suspect that where Boeing use to do that job in house but have out-sourced it to a lower cost vendor with no benefits, which might have the work done by the very same people, at now reduced wages and lower moral.
Ever since Boeing's corporate headquarters moved to the Midwest, the engineering and workforce stills have declined.
My dad (747 wing design and test eng) is most likely spinning in his grave. Where are the quality checks at the primary vendor and at Boeing? This should never ever have made it through the outgoing or incoming quality processes.
ReplyDeletePlease can the primary vendor and the folks who couldn't even verify the first lot (and the idiots at Boeing who fucked this all up).
The beancounters who ruined McDonnell-Douglas took over from the engineers who successfully ran Boeing. Everything that has happened to Boeing since then flows from that.
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ReplyDelete-Doug in Sugar Pine
Thanks for letting me know.
ReplyDelete