LYNNWOOD, Washington, Feb 11 - Boeing told suppliers on Wednesday that the company has recorded substantial improvements in the quality of parts coming from its commercial airplane supply chain over the past two years.
Ihssane Mounir, Boeing senior vice president for global supply chain and fabrication, addressed attendees at the Pacific Northwest Aerospace Alliance (PNAA) supplier conference outside Seattle and said the planemaker now spends 40% fewer hours correcting issues originating in its supplier base compared with 2024.
Mounir pointed to specific gains at Spirit AeroSystems, the supplier that produces fuselages for the 737 and structures for other Boeing models. He said defects from Spirit have declined by 60% since Boeing increased quality-control inspections at that supplier in 2024.
The Spirit unit had been at the centre of a high-profile safety incident when a 737 MAX door plug it had made and installed blew out midair on an Alaska Airlines flight in early 2024. That event prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to impose production caps on Boeing.
In December, Boeing repurchased Spirit AeroSystems, which is based in Wichita, Kansas, giving the aircraft maker more direct control over that stage of its supply chain. Spirit was originally formed in 2005 when Boeing sold parts of its aerostructures production business to investors.
Mounir described Spirit’s return to Boeing’s ownership in personal terms, saying: "coming back into family was probably the best thing that’s happened in my career." He also linked the supplier-quality issues at Spirit and other vendors to the broader difficulty Boeing faced in restarting jetliner production after the COVID-19 pandemic.
The improvements Mounir described focused on reduced rework time and lower defect rates rather than on other operational metrics. He attributed the 60% fall in defects at Spirit specifically to the heightened inspections introduced in 2024, and he framed the repurchase as increasing Boeing’s ability to manage those supplier quality challenges directly.
Summary of the situation - Boeing reports large reductions in supplier-originating rework hours and a sharp fall in defects at Spirit AeroSystems following enhanced inspections and Boeing's acquisition of the supplier.