MSBBarrat and Spotty,
The reasons you both say that outsourcing is not the actual problem is EXACTLY why I think that outsourcing is the problem.
Bear with me on this: Outsourcing is inherently risky because you're adding another layer of swiss cheese which has more holes than cheese, and it's at the far end of the cheese layers that management have very little visibility of, and control over.
Barratt, the same human elements of forgetfulness and fallibility also rear their heads in the outsourcing model. Client companies have to trust the paper trail (and a few surprise audits if they can manage it), but the very fact that the work processes take place outside their own premises makes it that much more difficult for QC to do their job. The control and checks in place need to be more stringent, and the QC people need to be that much sharper.
I also completely agree with you about things like toolbox checks, etc... but that's my point. Who's to say that such practices will be religiously followed when the work is outsourced, regardless of what any paperwork may show.
Example: All those infuriating call centers in India... Brilliant in theory, but crap in practice. By the time top management get to know about the disgruntled customers, and then clean up the call center companies, it too little too late.
Boeing also does a lot of 'insourcing' or internal-outsourcing (for lack of a better term). What I mean is: a huge percentage of the workforce on the factory floor (fitters, machinists, assembly staff) are temp staff on hourly wage contracts. There's a massive hire-and-fire culture thats dependent on the current workload on the floor.
This means that there's always a lot of new guys who can get be trained, but do not have the experience that aviation requires. They are then laid off at the next downturn, and when Boeing needs to hire again, it's most likely that those same guys will not be around.
Sometimes, entire production teams can consist of just one experienced leader and 4 or 5 newbies. Sobering!
So, to prove what I'm saying here's an example I saw for my self on the 787 line. At around 2.5yrs of delay when the issue of wing delam was discovered, Boeing decided to get their design staff more closely involved with the assembly line, so that any issues from re-designed structures/components could be addressed more quickly.
They moved their CAD stations, desks and all, on to the factory floor, right next to the airframes being assembled. If a worker had a problem with a part, he could walk right up to a designers desk and drop it there and show him the problem. Some management and QC staff were also moved to the floor to ensure that a tight ship was run... and it worked.
What's wonderful is that it proved that if you take ownership of your problems and keep things close, you're capable of amazing things.... and what's really sad is that they did this in hindsight as a crisis management task, and not something that should have been incorporated into the work culture from day 1.
@ barit1: HA HA HA!!! Vacuum cleaner?! That takes the cake!