As Boeing works to improve quality, it’s in talks to buy one of its key suppliers. NPR spoke to workers at the Spirit AeroSystems factory in Wichita, Kansas that builds the fuselage for the 737.
iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-4983722/nx-s1-03259d61-ab4a-43d7-9563-e28439348a78" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">WICHITA — It takes more than 200,000 fasteners to hold a Boeing 737 together, and many of them are installed manually by mechanics at Spirit AeroSystems.
“It makes your heart sink,” said Hamm. “Everybody's got family on these planes. We don't want no incidents at all. We want the best quality we can out of this place, and no defects. We don't want nobody hurt.”Hamm works in integration, where workers join different sections of the fuselage together. It’s his job to oversee newer employees, and to make sure those fasteners are installed correctly.
At one point, Spirit was building more than 50 fuselages for the 737 per month in Wichita. Now the pace has slowed to about 30.Boeing and Spirit leaders both say the number of defects has declined since January, but that does not explain why so many were escaping from the factory to begin with. The answer may be tied up in the long and troubled history between the two companies.
NPR spoke to nine former and current Spirit employees for this story. Some told us that quality at the Wichita plant had been declining for years, as finance experts replaced engineers in the ranks of management.
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Inside the factory where a key Boeing supplier builds the fuselage for the 737As Boeing works to improve quality, it’s in talks to buy one of its key suppliers. NPR spoke to workers at the Spirit AeroSystems factory in Wichita, Kansas that builds the fuselage for the 737.
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