Boeing pledges to improve QC as Osprey line restarts

Boeing Co., the second-largest U.S. defense contractor, resumed production today of V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft after pledging to improve security and quality-control at a Pennsylvania plant where a rivet-gun cap was found in the fuselage of a plane under construction.

Effective immediately, Boeing promised “increased security presence, improved foreign object debris control practices throughout the site as well as product integrity inspections,” Ann Jensis-Dale, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Defense Contract Management Agency said in an e-mail today. She didn’t provide details.

Production at the Ridley Park plant outside of Philadelphia was halted Nov. 21 after Boeing received a “corrective action request” from the agency that followed the company’s discovery of the rivet-gun cap in a V-22 during an inspection. Boeing previously suspended production in May after discovering slashed wires on one helicopter and a misplaced washer in another. A disgruntled employee later pleaded guilty to cutting the wires.

The DCMA accepted Boeing’s plan to improve quality-control today, Jensis-Dale said. The plant’s lines for V-22 and the Chinook helicopter resumed full production today, Boeing spokesman John Williamson said in an e-mail. The V-22 fuselage is built at the plant and sent to Amarillo, Texas, for final assembly.

Boeing, the world’s second-largest maker of commercial jets after Airbus SAS, had defense sales valued at $32.1 billion last year, or 48 percent of total revenue of $66.4 billion. Chicago- based Boeing rose $1.10, or 2.7 percent, to $41.28 at 4:01 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares have dropped 53 percent this year.

Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed Martin Corp. is the Pentagon’s largest supplier.