Finding the Right Fit

Air ForceAir force parts optimisation and ordering systems are difficult to deploy across large, entrenched systems. Drew Turney investigates.

National Air Forces are some of the biggest, most complicated customers spare parts providers can possibly deal with. Each command, base or unit will have its own very different culture, behaviours and systems in place that will affect and steer its provisioning efforts.

What’s more, their hardware is among the most complicated and technically developed in the world in which quality control and accuracy is paramount.

There are enough suppliers and there’s certainly enough demand. As military spending increases around the world (the US military alone spent $439bn in 2007) the problem is meshing the two together – one often off-the-shelf and modular, the other huge and unwieldy – to make sure the right material is in the right place at the right time.

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