FAA

1
FAAs Special Technical Audit of Boeing and the
Audit Resolution Plan
2
Purpose

• FAAs Special Technical Audit (STA) of Boeing is
  complete
• FAA has reviewed the findings and analyzed the
  data collected
• FAA has developed and is implementing a
  comprehensive Audit Resolution Plan - 3 phased
  series of actions

3
Boeing Today - FAA View

• STA found no immediate safety issues related to
  Boeings design or manufacturing processes
• FAA and Boeing have implemented corrective
  actions to address specific issues from the STA
• Corrective actions
• Short term - addresses specific issues - complete
• Today - additional resource intensive actions
• Extra checks
• Root cause analysis
• Longer term - broad based systemic
  improvements

4
Why did the FAA Conduct the STA?

• Series of high visibility production breakdowns
  in the fall of 1999
• FAA determined that a comprehensive audit of
  Boeing was necessary and should be performed in
  advance of regularly scheduled audits
• The purpose of the STA was to determine if the
  production breakdowns were isolated events or
  representative of systemic issues

5
STA Process Overview

• FAA team consisted of 18 engineers and inspectors
  - all with broad aircraft certification
  experience, many from other geographic regions
• STA team evaluated 7 major production and
  engineering facilities over an 11 week period
• The STA was an enhancement of our normal
  surveillance process combining system level
  criteria with detail product checks. STA focused
  on
• Compliance reviews
• Conformity reviews (hardware audits)
• Process reviews

6
STA Key Findings

• Findings show systemic issues - not isolated
  events
• Characterization of systemic issues
• Some processes are incomplete or overly complex
• Processes are not always followed
• Inadequate work instructions
• Inadequate inspections to assure product matches
  design (conformity)
• Personnel not knowledgeable of approved processes
  and procedures
• Findings illustrate design and production systems
  are not functioning as intended
• No immediate safety issues

7
Audit Resolution Plan - Overview
Root cause data
Part 1 Immediate Actions Specific
corrective actions to resolve all production and
engineering findings
Part 2 Additional Actions Additional
actions to assure compliance and conformity at
delivery
Part 3 Systemic Changes Systemic process
improvements driven by root cause analysis of
data from Parts 1 2
Root cause data
Necessary to fix specific, localized deficiencies
Necessary for continued deliveries of
conforming complying airplanes
Necessary to fix systemic, root cause
deficiencies

• Replacing isolated fixes with broad based -
  robust,
• systemic fixes

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Immediate Actions (Part 1) - Status

• All production related findings have been
  corrected
• Example Planning errors in the instruction used
  to manufacture and assemble parts
• All engineering findings have been addressed.
  Work is continuing to close remaining 6 findings.
• Example Incomplete coordination of design and
  specification changes
• Detailed analysis of specific findings is being
  conducted to understand root causes

9
Additional Actions (Part 2) - Status

• Significant additional actions implemented to
  assure compliant and conforming products
• Boeing restricted supplier inspection authority
• 70 additional Boeing personnel on site at
  suppliers to increase supplier oversight and
  product inspections
• All Boeing manufacturing facilities have
  implemented structured self audit processes
• 300 additional Boeing personnel dedicated to
  performing individual airplane checks for
  compliance and conformity
• Institutionalized compliance board to scrutinize
  changes on every airplane
• Detailed analysis of the data obtained from these
  actions is being conducted to understand root
  causes

10
Systemic Changes (Part 3) - Status

• FAA and Boeing conducting systemic root cause
  analysis (RCA) of data from Parts 1 and 2 of the
  Audit Resolution Plan
• RCA is necessary to identify solutions that will
  provide
• Clear work instructions used to manufacture parts
  
• Simplified engineering requirements and
  processes. Documentation of engineering
  practices.
• Consistent - high quality suppliers and sub-tier
  suppliers
• Compliance to production processes and procedures
• This is an on-going phase (through 2002) that
  will result in clear and robust processes that
  assure complying, conforming and safe airplanes

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Continuous Improvement in Oversight

• The FAA is always looking for ways to improve our
  oversight processes
• During the STA we applied enhanced evaluation
  techniques
• Conformance reviews (product audits)
• Structured interviews
• Enhanced supplier evaluation criteria and
  sub-tier supplier reviews
• Incorporating these enhancements in future audits
  

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Boeing STA - Summary

• Systemic issues identified during the audit
• The Audit Resolution Plan is headed in the right
  direction - it goes beyond fixing specific
  problems - it fixes the systems
• Until the system changes are fully implemented,
  significant additional FAA and Boeing resources
  dedicated to assure compliant, conforming and
  safe airplane deliveries
• FAA surveillance process being revised based on
  lessons learned. This will improve FAA oversight
  function at Boeing and other manufacturers.