Jet Defects Stoke Debate Over Who Should Inspect Mechanics’ Work

livemint.com:

Should airplane mechanics be responsible for checking their own work? The question is the subject of a long-simmering feud between workers and executives at major aircraft manufacturers. The debate has intensified as the aerospace industry deals with a series of costly manufacturing defects. Workers say having a separate inspector sign off is critical for quality control in an industry with no margin for error.

Union leaders at Spirit AeroSystems, a problem-plagued supplier to Boeing, say the company has put itself at greater risk of making mistakes by calling for self-inspections on certain tasks. “We have inspectors for a reason," said Cornell Beard, president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers chapter representing workers at Spirit’s Wichita, Kan., factory. “These are airplanes; if there’s a problem, we don’t get to pull over on a cloud and kick the tires." Executives at aircraft makers and suppliers say self-inspections are used on a small percentage of tasks and that technological advances have reduced the need for separate inspectors.

Manufacturing snafus this year at Spirit stymied production of Boeing’s bestselling 737 MAX jet, delaying the company’s turnaround. A Spirit spokesman said the latest problem of misdrilled holes on 737 fuselages didn’t involve tasks in which mechanics checked their own work. The company says that self-inspections as a percentage of overall factory work are in the low single digits.