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by Steven Titch, Contributing Editor   | Abstract: | Aerospace companies Boeing and Lockheed Martin use performance-based logistics to factor quality and control metrics into the supply chain. |
Not a single day goes by that Rick McCreary isn't talking to someone in the U.S. Navy about product support. "Navy personnel are not reluctant to complain when something's wrong," says McCreary, senior supply chain manager for the Navy at Boeing Co.'s Integrated Defense Systems (St. Louis, MO). "What the Navy wants is to fly jets and keep them flying. It's our job to fix problems before they become big issues." McCreary's responsibilities include oversight of Boeing's F/A-18E/F Integrated Readiness Support Training (FIRST), which supplies components and parts for the latest generation of F/A-18 Hornets, the Navy's carrier-based fighter jets. Like most of the major defense and aerospace contractors, Boeing initiated a major overhaul of its business processes, including supply chain management, in the mid-1990s when the Department of Defense made substantive changes in the way it did business with its contractors. [Click to continue] |