>This seems crazy to me. Alaska Airlines doesn't trust Boeing enough that they're sending their audit team to Boeing to check for quality.
I wouldn't say it's crazy. When buying industrial equipment, it's commonplace to have a Factory Acceptance Test (FAT) where engineers from the customer travel to the supplier factory to verify everything is built to spec and functions as expected. Upon passing FAT, equipment is shipped to site and installed where it then undergoes a site acceptance test (SAT). After SAT, the equipment is "handed over" to the client. The FAT-SAT process can be applied to anything from small individual pieces of equipment all the way up to huge skids/packages.
In shipbuilding, classification agencies like ABS or DNV have inspectors that monitor the construction of a ship.
I wouldn't say it's crazy. When buying industrial equipment, it's commonplace to have a Factory Acceptance Test (FAT) where engineers from the customer travel to the supplier factory to verify everything is built to spec and functions as expected. Upon passing FAT, equipment is shipped to site and installed where it then undergoes a site acceptance test (SAT). After SAT, the equipment is "handed over" to the client. The FAT-SAT process can be applied to anything from small individual pieces of equipment all the way up to huge skids/packages.
In shipbuilding, classification agencies like ABS or DNV have inspectors that monitor the construction of a ship.