FAA’s Special Technical Audit
of Boeing and the Audit Resolution
Plan
Slide 1
Purpose
• FAA’s 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
Slide 2
Boeing Today - FAA View
• STA found no immediate safety issues related to
Boeing’s 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
Slide 3
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
Slide 4
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
Slide 5
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
Slide 6
Audit Resolution Plan - Overview
Root cause data
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Immediate
Actions
Additional
Actions
Systemic
Changes
Specific
corrective actions
to resolve all
production and
engineering
findings
Additional actions
to assure
compliance
and conformity at
delivery
Necessary to fix
specific,
localized
deficiencies
Necessary for
continued deliveries
of conforming &
complying airplanes
Root cause data
Systemic process
improvements
driven by root
cause analysis of
data from
Parts 1 & 2
Necessary to fix
systemic, root
cause deficiencies
•Replacing isolated fixes with broad based - robust,
Slide 7
systemic fixes
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
Slide 8
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 Slide 9
actions is being conducted to understand root causes
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
Slide 10
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
Slide 11
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.
Slide 12