Maybe we have to share some of the blame?
In the end its the maintainance engineers and certifiers that set the standard. If we accept commercial pressure to get the aircraft out of the door, then its only natural for the 'bean-counters' to assume that everything is OK and it can be done every time. One of the problems of 3rd party maintenance is that the customer is king. When a customer rep. decides that he doesn't want something fixed, we accept it and turn a blind eye. The aircraft goes out on deadline in cr*ppy condition, the customer has his Certificate that the AMS has been satisfied. Then the next aircraft into the hangar is one of our own. Isn't it only natural for the bean-counters to wonder why we can do someone elses "C" check in 5 days and then spend 10 days on our doing our own?
Perhaps the answer is for us to start refusing to withold defects. When a customer wants one ignored, he might sign it off himself. What happens if we refuse to certify the Scheduled Task? The employer is sure to exert pressure, very strong pressure, but I simply don't believe that any company can afford to threaten penalties if the defect is genuine. In the end we are supported by the ANO (in UK anyway) and threatening a certifying engineer would be grounds for removal of the company's approval. I must put it on record that in my career I have refused to certify on three occasions. Twice I came under severe pressure to sign and stood my ground. Nothing ever happened, in fact after one occasion I was promoted! Taking this a step further, maybe our willingness to "get the job done" is the reason for our low status and pay?
This is not a wind-up, but an attempt to provoke some serious discussion on the current trend to 'get them out the door as fast as possible.' Let's have some more opinion on this subject.
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Through difficulties to the cinema