Sundstrand supplied both commercial and military aviation systems. The military spares and repair businesses impacted the commercial side in several ways. When repairing common parts for the military, the commercial stock would be exhausted, leaving no parts for commercial repairs. Mr. D's planning had to account for military demand and usage to avoid these stockouts. Later, changes to the military repair contracts required faster turnaround times, adding complexity to Mr. D's planning.

1. Sundstrand’s Military Business and its Impact on Mr. D
In additiontoits’ commercial aviationbusinessSundstrandwasalsoa majorsupplierof militaryaviation
systems. Militaryaircraftalsohave CSDsand fuel pumpsetceterajustlike commercial airplanes.
SPARES:
The militarysparesbusinesswas alsocontainedwithinthe CustomerService division,andadministered
throughthe COOP system. The militaryorderswere administeredbyaseparate groupfromthe
commercial airline orders. There wasnoinventoryplanning groupformilitaryspares. Intheory,the
militarybusinesswasa“buildtoorder” business,andwhatlittle inventorymanagementrequiredwas
done bythe military orderadministrators. The COOPsystemallowedthe militaryandcommercial
businessestobe processedthroughseparate warehouses,sothere twobusinessesdidnotinterfere
withthe othersinventory.
There were timeswhenmilitaryneededapart that wascommon to a commercial programand the part
was incommercial stock. Those itemswere usuallytransferredtothem withinthe COOPsystemby
movingthe stockfrom the commercial warehousetothe militarywarehouse. Conversely,commercial
sparesoccasionallyborrowedapartfromthe militarywarehouse. Mr. D had a weeklyscheduled
program to identify“surplus”stockinmilitarythatcouldbe usedbycommercial,andvice versa.
Sometimes,the militarybusinesswasrunona “make to stock”basis. There were timeswhenitwas
knownthat the militarywould eventually place anorderforthe parts neededtosupport some particular
program,but the orderswere slowincoming. For example,in1987 the AirForce washot to get parts
for the F15. We hadbeennegotiating acontractwiththe Air Force for months, andwere justwaiting
for a fundingbill toworkitswaythrough congress. In 1987 the commercial sparesbusinesswasina
slumpandtop managementwantedthe salesforthose F15parts to happeninthe year.
As a service tothe militarygroup,Mr. D came upwitha low riskplanforadvance releasingsome F15
itemssotheywould stockin1987, aheadof the receiptof the contract. The practical upshot of his
actionswas thatalmost70% of the salesforthe contract were scheduledandshippedin1987. Had the
parts not beenadvance releasedmuchof the saleswouldhave slippedinto1988. Thisprocesswould
be repeatedseveral times onothermilitaryprograms.
REPAIR:
In additiontoa militarysparesbusinessthere wasalsoamilitaryrepairbusiness. Thisbusiness,at
times,hada major impacton the commercial business. The problemwaswith partsthat were common
to commercial products.
Priorto 1989 the repairstockroomhadonlyone binlocationforeach item,anditwas run on a first
come firstserve basis. Since the militaryrepairbusinesswasBTOthere were usually no“military”parts
stockedinrepair. Mr. D’s group wouldstockcommercial partsin repair– some parts were commonto
the militaryunits. Forcommonitems,the militaryunitshadthe same accesstoparts as the commercial
units. If effect,the militaryunitsgotafree ride onthe back of Mr. D’s planningprocess.
The normal repaircycle was: 1. the militarywouldstockpilefailedunitsata depot. 2. The depotwould
thensendbatches of unitsto Sundstrandforrepair. 3. Repaira few unitseachmonth.

2. Sundstrand’s Military Business and its Impact on Mr. D
Quite often, Sundstrand’smanagementwouldsee thisbigpileof militaryunitsas muchneeded revenue
and wouldpushtohave those unitsrepairedimmediately,ratherthanhavingsome orderlyprocess to
repaira fewunitseachmonth. All the unitswouldbe split,analyzed,andthe listof partsneededfor
repairwouldbe sentto the stockroom.
The net resultof that bigpushwas that the stockof parts inthe repair stockroomwouldbe exhausted
almostimmediately. Thismeantthat, forany item commonbetweencommercial andmilitary,there
were noparts available tosupportthe commercial repairbusiness.
Often,thisissue didn’tsurface untilall the partsinthe spareswarehouse were alsoexhausted,leaving
no parts to supportanycommercial business. This problemwasmitigated in1989 whenthe repair
businesswasputontothe COOPsystemand the militaryandcommercial repairpartswere separated
intotwo differentwarehouses. Afterthat,the militaryrepairunitscouldnotaccessparts inthe
commercial repairwarehouse.
The planningresponsibility forthe repaircenterstockroomswastransferredtoMr. D in 1987. This
responsibilityincludedthe partsneededtosupportmilitaryrepairs.Formilitarypartsthatwere
commonto commercial units,thisrequiredMr.D to add the militaryrepairusage tohiscommercial
demand& forecast. Those additionsneedswere thensuppliedthroughthe commercial partsplanning
processuntil 1989, whenthe instillationof the COOPsysteminrepairallowedthe militaryand
commercial repairbusinessestobe keptseparate.
The 1990s saw a change in the militaryrepairbusiness. The governmentbecame interestedinsigning
up forcontracts that were very“commercial”inappearance. The governmentwouldpayahigherprice
for the repairof a unit,butwouldbe guaranteedamuch fasterturntime. This,of course,meantthat
Mr. D’ssystemhad to modifiedtoaccommodate the stockingof partsto supportthese fasterturn
times. Anaddedtwistforthese programswasthat there were usuallyhadanexpirationdate foreach
contract, so the planningneededtobe shutoff at a specifictime.
Well there itis:one more tasty entrée inMr. D’s smorgasbordof ideas. Take whatyou want,andleave
the rest.
Contact Mr. D at MisterD@windstream.net