When I hear popular culture terms, I tend to borrow the lingo so I don’t seem remote and out of touch. A term I’ve heard bandied-about is ‘TMI’, or Too Much Information. ‘TMI’ might be uttered by you following a conversation with an acquaintance who shared information that was socially awkward, over-the-top, or just plain overwhelming. But this is the age of information, which reportedly is the new gold standard. If so, when is information too much? Having information or data does not necessa...

It’s time once again to dive into the murky world of undefined terms with my professor’s hat properly donned. By undefined I mean the that the term is not clearly ensconced in regulations or standards. AS REMOVED: With the rise in popularity of aircraft and engines being disassembled to harvest parts for a supply-chain starved market, the use of the term ‘As Removed’ has come into effect, and this is really the genesis of the term. The moment the part is removed from its next higher assembly, it...

Scenario: You are a distributor, and you have an MMR (Multi Mode Receiver) in your Quarantine Cage because the MRO- Maintenance Repair & Overhaul shop returned the part to you as BER- Beyond Economical Repair due to an unrepairable power supply. There is a customer who is looking for a cover whose part number is the cover for the MMR in the Q Cage. You simply remove the 10 screws to disassemble the cover from the MMR assembly, and voila, you have an AR- As Removed condition part and you’re a her...

Reducing Turn Around Time (TAT) seems to be on a perpetual hit list among writers of journals, case studies, and contracts. Indeed, what a nobler topic to champion? Speedier TAT’s result in greater availability of the asset being turned around. For aircraft this means more Revenue Kilometer Miles; for engines and components, greater availability of spares, or a reduction in spares inventory- music to the ears of CFO’s. What irks me however, and compels me to pen this blog, is that most of what h...