Industries
Production, depot maintenance, and the move from first article to rate.
Program approval in this sector attaches to a specific line, process, and site — not to a company name. Configuration control and first-article requirements sit between design and rate. Sustainment is a second operation beside production: depot induction, spare-part waits, and findings that appear only after the aircraft is opened.
Schedule slip and quality escapes tend to start when work leaves its station, when first article does not protect the first production units, or when a depot plan assumes the work request is complete.
The work is with the cell, the pulse line, and the hangar dock. What comes up in practice: red-lined work instructions, jobs that leave station, first-article packages, material-review boards, and whether the day’s status is visible to the people turning wrenches.
The work on site is station standard work and traveled-work mapping, first-article package discipline before rate, depot induction through finding-to-close, and a daily status the people on the tools can see. The method is on What we do.
73%
Air Force aircraft delayed against the original depot target in FY2024.
GAO-26-107890, Air Force depot maintenance delays, FY2024 original target.
376
Median extra days on C-5s that missed the original depot target.
GAO-26-107890: C-5s delayed a median of 376 days, FY2020–2024.
40–50
Days per year a military aircraft spends in scheduled maintenance, versus 25–35 in commercial MRO.
McKinsey, Improving military aircraft sustainment, expert MRO survey.
15%
Aerospace and defense workforce turnover — more than twice the cross-industry average.
AIA / McKinsey 2025 A&D workforce study: industry attrition near 15%.
Jobs leave the pulse incomplete and finish out of station. Verification is harder. Rework follows.
AS9102 first-article load is high. Escapes often start on the first production unit, before the line is at rate.
Induction finds corrosion or cracks that were not on the work request. Parts and engineering approval then hold the aircraft.
A cell can be certified and still miss rate when work instructions are red-lined and the people who held the process have turned over.