Boeing expects more changes at supplier Spirit Aero as merger approaches

By Lauren Rosenblatt, The Seattle Times

As Boeing prepares to fold supplier Spirit AeroSystems back into the company, executives shared additional details on last year’s rush to improve quality control at the troubled Kansas factory.

In just five weeks, Boeing and Spirit set up a new inspection checkpoint at the end of Spirit’s Wichita, Kansas, production line. There, teams of inspectors would review seven fuselages at once, working to reduce the number of flawed 737 fuselages arriving at Boeing’s Renton, Washington, plant for final assembly.

The project — in response to an Alaska Airlines panel blowout in January 2024 that revealed shortcomings in Boeing and Spirit’s production process — was part of a new inspection regime, which included more inspectors, more inspections and a new set