It’d be easier to laugh about this sort of thing if I hadn’t seen worse.
(H/T to SJBill for the .ppt)
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« Progress Maintenance malpracticeBy lex, on February 3rd, 2008
26 comments to Maintenance malpractice |
Targets of Opportunityblog advertising is good for you Credo"Sign on, young man, and sail with me. The stature of our homeland is no more than the measure of ourselves. Our job is to keep her free. Our will is to keep the torch of freedom burning for all. To this solemn purpose we call on the young, the brave, the strong, and the free. Heed my call, Come to the sea. Come Sail with me." -- John Paul Jones "Pardon him, Theodotus; he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature" --George Bernard Shaw, "Caesar and Cleopatra" "And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."--Friedrich Nietzsche "A kind Providence has placed in our breasts a hatred of the unjust and cruel, in order that we may preserve ourselves from cruelty and injustice. They who bear cruelty, are accomplices in it. The pretended gentleness which excludes that charitable rancour, produces an indifference which is half an approbation. They never will love where they ought to love, who do not hate where they ought to hate."--Edmund Burke “You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.”--General Sir Charles Napier "Μολὼν λαβέ" -- Leonidas "Blogito Ergo Sum" -- Neptunus Lex Amazon AssociateFor the Effort!Winnar! Subscribe CategoriesPagesTagsacademy
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Heh, my fave was the KC-135 doing the pressurization check and they didn’t have the safety valve rigged right. Blew up like a burst balloon.
just google image search for “kc-135 pressure” and there it is.
A parenthetic point: China Airlines is a Taiwan-based carrier. Air China (not depicted here) is the PRC-based carrier. Easy to confuse the two names.
One of the worst decisions I ever made was taking an Air Garuda flight (Indonesian) from Shanghai to Singapore. It was an old Air France 747 that must have been “recycled”. It shuddered the whole way. I was never so relieved to get back on deck. Never again.
Yep, the KC-135 was worse. No ’bout adoubt it.
Didn’t know Murphy did international. Wonder what the third thing to happen was?
My maintenance Master Chief used to refer to evolutions like that as “Three monkeys making sweet sweet love to a football.” He didn’t use those EXACT words, but something close.
In the famous words of Homer Simpson… Doh!!
Jim C
The funny thing is, if that was a C5, you wouldn’t think twice about it – it’s supposed to kneel.
My husband flies to Asia on a constant basis. I want to thank everyone here that has weighed in on different airlines and their safety protocol/ age of fleet, etc. for helping us keep my husband safe on his many trips.
We both hate it that his job has changed from overseeing manufacturing in the U.S. to constant trips to China, Taiwan, the PI, etc. But, there you have it. Manufacturing jobs ARE being offshored…
At least my husband can stay safe during the hundreds of hours he spends commuting to the various factory sites.
Fly American!
Stay tuned, Babs. At the rate of dollar weakening and wage inflation in China, there are a lot of people calculating at what point it will make more sense to make their product in North America (ie, Mexico). The peso has been essentially flat relative to the dollar.
Seen a lot worse, so yeah that one is funny. The lowered look of the 747 does look kind of nice for drag racing.
I don’t know Flat… I think you have a long wait on your hands… Ten years ago the manufacturing was “offshored” to Mexico. The work ethic was so bad that it was like entering a manufacturing nightmare…
The work ethic in Asia is quite high, even with the language barrier. I don’t see the products coming back to Mexico anytime soon.
W’ha happned to the WOW (squat switch) ?
You can move the gear handle all day long on the ground but as long as there is weight on the wheels they are not going to retract.
This looks like an MX ‘oh shit’.
Habla me Jefe! How long till you got the denaro to add blacklights and spinners?
Many might be very surprised to learn that a large majority of major U.S. airlines’ heavy maintenance has been outsourced to foreign contractors in countries like El Salvador, Nicaragua, Singapore and Hong Kong among others.
Although the FAA still maintains some little control over the foreign maintenance work, much of it is done by mechanics who are not as well trained nor meet the licensing requirements of US aircraft maintenance workers. But they do work for a lot less and without benefits.
Maintenance outsourcing has left a large number of highly trained and skilled US aircraft mechanics on the street….Like 27,000 American men and women in the last six years.
link
For those who haven’t noticed, Mexico’s manufacturing is booming again. And there is now a huge resurgence in Maquiladoras, which have been mostly dormant for years.
It is, as Ross Perot once termed it with NAFTA, a new “giant sucking sound.”
link
It is not sucking in my neck of the woods… And this is coming from the wife of someone that made a regular trip down to McAllen Texas and drove over the border every day to check on manufacturing; dodging dead animals and sewage in the streets….
My husband works for a very large concern… They have moved almost all manufacturing to Asia.
Based on your claim, you would think that my husband’s concern would switch some of their manufacturing back to Mexico… They haven’t.
Manufacturing is an interesting industry. Operating a punch-press and poking holes in aluminum was automated years ago — the skilled operator was replaced by a computer. Likewise, machining was long ago replaced by CNC-controlled centers, the same program code churns out the same widget 10K times/day and the machine never gets tired or wants coffee or has a hangover. Nor does it want a retirement package.
Where manufacturing has been outsourced it’s in low-number, low-yield projects where there’s not enough volume to justify automation and the wages are low enough to not make it profitable for American manufacturers.
So, anybody remember when tech support was going to India? There were complaints galore, those high-tech jobs going overseas where wages were lower.
I wonder how long it took for somebody to realize that operating a 3-axis Bridgeport isn’t exactly rocket science and if you can be replaced by a CNC center you can probably be replaced by a low-wage worker on a manual mill?
Oddly enough, as we lose manufacturing jobs we still gain jobs in other areas. I believe this is what is known as a “growth economy.” People who’ve lost manufacturing jobs might lament the situation, but if they’re in the unemployment line perhaps they might take some consolation from the buggy-whip manufacturers who’ve been there even longer.
Economies and jobs change. Deal.
– Max
#17 Babs – Obviously, Mexico does not nor cannot compete effectively with China in manufacturing. (Nor can we in the US, it sadly seems) Nevertheless, Mexico is still experiencing a resurgence, regardless of what your husband’s concern does.
For certain companies, manufacturing in Mexico makes more sense. It’s proximity trumps the shipping costs and the time of over 4- 5 weeks for most goods from China versus 5 days from Mexico. Our Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and other Latin American companies gives a large advantage over China. And Mexico has better intellectual property rights laws and enforcement than China.
Of course China is the fast growing, manufacturing behemoth, and will continue to be. But that still does not negate Mexico’s recent, surprising manufacturing growth in certain areas where Mexico has some advantages.
Fliter,
I think you mistake ability for willingness.
We manufacture at approximately 1/3 the volume of China. Right now, China is the #1 volume manufacturer on Earth. So, for every 3 widgets they build, we build 1.
That being said, America is the #1 Value producer on Earth, followed by Japan and China. In terms of overall value, we manufacture approximate twice the value of China. That means that even though they are producing triple the number of widgets, our widgets are worth approximately 6 times more.
So, let China produce all the cheap crap they want, manufacturing is last decade’s game anyway.
We haven’t reached the “tipping point” yet for moving OUT of China. However, many companies are reaching the point where the total costs of launching a new product line in China no longer make sense. This is especially true for complex products.
The dollar:RMB exchange rate is an ongoing concern. The larger concern is wage inflation, especially for skilled people. Compound 15% (10% wage inflation plus 5% exchange rate), and your costs double in less than five years.
At the same time there is a surplus of highly skilled manufacturing talent in North America. Twenty years ago, it was hard to find experienced manufacturing managers in Mexico. No more. You have many excellent operations with 20-30 years of experience. In Mexico you have to be able to look beyond the dead dogs in the street, because behind the factory walls you can have pristine, well-run operations.
Max, outsourcing makes the most sense not for low-volume, but quite the opposite. High-volume simple products are the first to go. High-volume complex products are the second to go. As an example, Motorola tried producing handsets in fully automated facilities in the US, but could not be competitive because of the fixed costs. I believe that all phone handsets are produced in Asia today, as are most consumer products.
The products that remain are either complex “high-mix” products, or proprietary niche products where the value is protected in the design.
Manufacturing has been in decline for decades, but I think, like the basic materials industry, we are in for some interesting dynamics in the years ahead, which should be good for US manufacturing companies.
Although the FAA still maintains some little control over the foreign maintenance work
You’ll find more than a few American flagged airliners getting their heavy checks done in places like Hong Kong, San Jose, and Tel Aviv…
I find it curious that no one has mentioned the adverse effect of private sector trade labor unions. That giant sucking sound is not that at all. Rather it is the roar of union officials blowing jobs away with their ruinous work rules, wage demands, strike threats, etc.
Accompanied by the background moaning of tired, outdated marginal Mfgs. unwilling and/or unable to compete in the evolving world economy. They find advertising and lobbying for Gummint protection & handouts far easier in this day.
Noticed that Bab’s neck of the woods gives short shrift to unions? God bless Texas.
The unions have ruined airline service. I ALWAYS prefer flying an Asian carrier from a ‘developed’ country, ie Singapore, Korea, Japan. Second choice are the European carriers. Third is American. Last is United. I suppose Air China is after United.
Never again list: Garuda, Indian Airlines.
Flatlander – I agree our US airline service is in a sad state. And the service on the foreign airlines you mention is far superior. But unions are not the primary reason for the difference. Indeed, those foreign airlines both you and I truly admire, are unionized too.
Since airline deregulation, US major airlines have been in a death spiral, cutting costs and using predatory pricing in an attempt to reduce competition by putting the other guy out of business. Constrained by inherent oligopoly economics, unlike the foreign subsidized carriers, our US carriers have transformed a former desirable service into a mere, low cost no frills commodity. Now smaller seat room, no meals and more productivity count more than customer service.
Furthermore, our airlines in slashing wages and benefits, changing work rules, outsourcing maintenance and reservations overseas, and eliminating workers’ pensions with visits to bankruptcy courts, have alienated many workers. In a service industry, having mistreated workers usually translates into mistreated customers, unfortunately. Airline unions have been mostly impotent for most of the decade, giving up most all of their earlier gains – and then some. All this naturally and unfortunately – in addition to the economics involved – leads to less than desired service.
Unions are not saintly, but they shoulder little blame for our current US airline mess.