Matthew Cordner

Boeing is "bounced" off AS9100 IAQG committees after criminal fraud plea deal with gov't... But suppliers still forced to comply with new "climate change" provisions ✈️👈🤡 Full disclosure: a couple months ago I made a post stating we were exiting the commercial aviation market and not going to participate in any AS9100 climate change foolishness. We did that and are no longer certified, notified customers and removed all mention of it too. Y'all have fun ♻️🤡🫡 Anyways, on July 24, 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice filed with the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas a proposed plea agreement with The Boeing Company. Basically the agreement means Boeing will have a *FELONY* conviction once the guilty plea agreement with prosecutors is accepted by the court in connection with fraud on 737 Max before two of the planes crashed, un-aliving 346 people off the coast of Indonesia and in Ethiopia. Boeing has apparently made the calculation that admitting to a crime is better than fighting the charge and enduring a long public trial... so they pled guilty. The Justice Department disclosed the agreement and said the fraud charge was “the most serious readily provable offense” it could bring against Boeing. As such, BCA has been formally ejected from the IAQG, and its representatives have been stripped of roles in all AS9100 and related standards committees. The IAQG justified the move by citing internal procedures that allow it to “suspend or withdraw (membership)for reasons linked to the application of embargo, export/import ban or other restrictive measures and/or sanctions imposed by (but not limited to) Government authorities.” Fyi, BCA requires its suppliers to achieve AS9100 certification, while it does not implement the standard for its own manufacturing operations -- did you know that none of the Boeing Commercial Airplane factories in Wash state and South Carolina are AS9100 certified? Nope they are not - Boeing (Commercial) has typically cited "lack of business case" for not getting certified themselves (although many Boeing defense factories like Long Beach and other divisions like Sevices are certified) But Boeing is not the only airplane company found guilty... In 2020, Airbus was forced to pay over $3.9 billion in international penalties related to bribery and export violations, which the Dept. of Justice called “the largest global foreign bribery resolution to date.” And RTX (Raytheon) got hit with $1.24 billion to resolve similar bribery charges, in a case that is still ongoing with the DoJ. Sikorsky and Derco (both owned by Lockheed) also fined $70 million after a whistleblower False Claims Act case revealed it routinely overcharged the US Navy. But... the IAQG has not taken action against them. 🤔🤔🤔 #aerospace #aviation #boeing #airbus #lockheed #raytheon #as9100

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If you really think inflation is ~3% then please unfollow me because we don't exist in same dimension and I have not interacted with otherworldly entities since playing Oujia Board at my friend Tim's birthday sleepover in 1983 👻 I don’t know why politicians and media gaslight people about stuff like this. People trust their grocery bill far more than some guy they don’t know on TV. I literally took an item off the grocery bill yesterday because when it rang up I was shocked at the price. Idea: It would be 10x smarter to say “I’ve noticed this huge problem, you must have noticed it too. Here's our plan to fix it" But noooo... CBS NEWS: "Two-thirds of voters think the economy was better under President Trump!" CONGRESSMAN HAKEEM JEFFRIES: "That's just not the case." Uhm, yes. Yes it is, in fact, the case! The Gov says current inflation rate is 3.4% However... this is the rate prices are increasing, except prices are 22% higher than 4 years ago. 3.4% in 2020 was a $8.71 increase in prices. 3.4% in 2024 is a $10.65 increase in prices. The same number is 22% worse today. Fact✅: 8.9% of credit card balances and 7.9% of auto loan balances transitioned into delinquency in Q12024, per the NYFed. Fact✅: About 121,000 consumers had a bankruptcy notation added to their credit reports in 2024Q1, more than in the previous quarter. Fact✅: What is the percent increase on housing? A 30 year mortgage on an entry level house. The monthly payment has basically doubled, about 100% !! Fact✅: CPI is close to being fake propaganda. Look up the official government inflation calculation for 1982. Food & energy now striped out to hide 📈 (Fyi, you can thank President Ford for this report today. He's the one who filled the SPR) Fact✅: In the last month, the price of canned coffee 13-20oz in the USA has risen by 27 percent. This price increase is now being excluded from the official inflation calculation. Anecdotally, I would say on average all food items we personally purchase at home are up a solid 20% (minimum). Also our car insurance, despite no claims, has steadily gone up each year over the last 4 years and is now close to DOUBLE. Similarly our business liability and property insurance has risen each year. Also now DOUBLE what it was 4 years ago. Most cutting tools, drill, inserts etc are 20%-50% more expensive. Where does it end? Advice: Expect it to continue or even get worse. The only thing you can do is SELL MORE. Simple example... -- Assume a #smallbusiness currently has annual costs of $1,000,000. -- Let's assume an average annual inflation rate of 4% over the next 4 years. (4% 👈🤡🤣😂) -- let's also assume typical small biz current net profit margin is 10%. I'll spare you the math but give these assumptions, you would need to increase sales by approx 17% over next 4 years just to maintain the same profit margin. Better get selling y'all! #sales #manufacturing #supplychain

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Most organizations in the MRO sector neglect effective project management: • Jump to implementing solutions with unclear objectives • Worry about quick fixes but forget foundational principles • Don't focus on their bottlenecks • Copy their competitors' approaches without customization • Go digital with the wrong process They skip 90% of the process. The truth is that they don't truly believe in structured methodologies. They see it as a set of steps that can be bypassed by anyone. This belief leads to irrational behaviors: • "We don't have time for thorough inspections, just fix it quickly." • "Implement this new digital system immediately, we need results now." • "Why isn't this process finished already?" They neglect the process, but expect fast ROI. And the results are disappointing: • For the Business → becomes inefficient • For the Team → lack of clarity on their tasks • For the Clients → experience delays and issues It always ends like this: Manager: "We've tried it before, they don't work for us." Me: "You've not worked properly on these 3 layers" 1. Portfolio layer Always start by understanding the specific problems and constraints in your MRO operations. Identify the bottlenecks early. Don’t spread thin your resources on too many aircraft/trains/equipment. Stop starting, start finishing. Stagger maintenance based on resource availability. 2. Planning Layer Once you know the issues, plan your interventions. Prioritize tasks, allocate resources efficiently, and create realistic timelines. Think not "what should we do next?", but "what needs to be done first?" Accept inherent variability, add a project buffer, and monitor buffer consumption throughout the process. 3. Execution Layer You need the combination of strategy and skills to execute effectively. Full kitting: ensure your team has the right tools, materials, training, and support. Respect their expertise and avoid micromanagement or unrealistic demands. Use visual management to align planning and execution. To get good results in MRO, you need to respect the whole process. I will give more details on the 5th of July, during our webinar on how to accelerate Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul with the Theory of Constraints: https://lnkd.in/e9zRuP62

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Spirit are no better than Boeing. "It suggests that Spirit is concerned only with their bottom line and is acting to protect their shareholders regardless of what that means for their workers and for the safety of the general public. It looks like exactly the kind of thing that the socialists of my youth said was inevitable and would lead to the overthrow of capitalism: naked greed without concern for anyone but the bosses and shareholders." While the author of the article is only concened with the "optics", they're spot on in their characterisation. Laying off 400 staff will do nothing for morale, collaboration, or focus on quality. It will take them backward. But hey ho, short-term profits first.

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Manufacturing is complex...what's your manufacturing strategy? I often speak with clients about 'make vs buy' (in-house vs contract manufacturing). There is no universal right answer, and sometimes your strategy has to shift! #manufacturing #strategy

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This is such a shame. After almost 3 years of marketing reshoring manufacturing, there seems to be no real investment in US manufacturing. Not sure what happened to all that investment, I assume most of it is stuck in committees and bureaucratic processes. If they only focused on getting those funds directly to the businesses that can benefit from them, instead of a top-down process that has not produced any tangible results. #madeinUSA #madeinamerica #infrastructurebill #inflationreductionact

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How has WFD been addressed in the past? ·       The FAA sought the help of several industry experts and formed the Airworthiness Assurance Task Force (AATF) in 1988. This group was subsequently renamed as the Airworthiness Assurance Working Group (AAWG) of the Aviation Rulemaking Advisory Committee (ARAC) which was formed in 1991. ·       Many of the aging aircraft in existence at the time the AAWG was formed had not been designed on a damage tolerant basis as this had not been made a regulatory requirement until the introduction of FAR 25.571 Amendment 45 in December 1978 ·       The AAWG defined several programs, some of which have been subsequently implemented on the different aging aircraft fleets by aircraft specific Structures Task Groups (STGs) ·       These programs were: 1.     Mandatory Modification Program (MMP). The identification of structurally significant service bulletins and recommended mandatory incorporation of modifications 2.     Corrosion Prevention and Control Program (CPCP) 3.     Generic Structural Maintenance Program (SMP) guidelines for aging aircraft 4.     Supplemental Structural Inspection Documents (SSID) 5.     Repair Assessment Programs (RAP) ·         It was recognized that given the increasing average age of the commercial fleet, WFD needed to be addressed. Consequently, the AAWG was assigned a sixth task by the FAA, namely, 6. Recommend procedures to preclude the occurrence of widespread fatigue damage within the transport airplane fleet

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For the first time, I felt sorry for the guy when I realized the position his shareholders put him in. An accountant turned CEO, who was completely aware of all the issues affecting the company, who, by watching his emotional distress, does want to do good, but has no clue how to do it aside from putting in place processes and policies, and recruiting an army of pilots and engineers to tell him what to do… On several occasions, the senators wanted him to go deeper into the high level arguments, but he could not. On several occasions they rebuffed him, about being the CEO and not knowing what was happening in factories, not knowing what happened to managers who retaliated against whistleblowers apart from the fact that a policy was put in place for that and deferred to a committee, with no idea how to fix spirit aerosystems apart from sending an army of compliance officers there to micromanage them and have a “strong commitment to a vertical integration” but couldn’t give a simple opinion on the strategy of Boeing on outsourcing so much of their engineering knowhow. And the senators saw that. They pushed him and kept asking him the same questions. “Give me just one example. Go deeper than just the policies and the procedures and tell me how it will be done. You seem to know very well how to talk about it, but tell me how you’re going to do it.” And when he kept evading all of those questions because he didn’t know, they ended up challenging his whole team, challenging the fact he wasn’t an engineer leading a once great engineering company, and wanted him and his team out and replaced. And next to him, a chief of engineering, who obviously knows his job, offered very precise answers, made the senators look silly and lose their composure when asking follow-up questions because they were in above their heads with this guy. But had a very bad “not my problem” attitude when asked about operations who had to implement his engineering designs. “The designs are good” was all he cared about. I think he’s been in the “bad guy” seat for too long, being under scrutiny ever since the MCAS scandal, and has become too synical about it to lead. They must find their Elon Musk (though I don’t like the guy, he gets the job done. When he wants something at SpaceX, he spends all-nighters with his engineering team and they work together to make it happen. He should never have acquired Twitter. The web has changed too much since he left PayPal, and he let his egotism get in the way), their bill gates or Steve jobs ( when they walked into a room, they told the team, “I want to do this, and this is how you’re going to do it”). Mentors upon whom they can look up for solutions, not implement another process with zero leadership or support. Meanwhile, Airbus CEO is an engineer, and a pilot. Toyota’s late CEO became a car racing pilot to gain the trust of his engineering team. Nvidia’a CEO is an electrical engineer. Google and Microsoft CEOs are homegrown engineers.

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Why not prevent quality lapses before they happen? "To steer Boeing back on course, a fundamental overhaul of its manufacturing approach is imperative – one that prioritizes transparency, accountability, and continual improvement." It's much easier to build a quality system than overhaul one. Just look at what Boeing is facing now.

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