FJJP
Fully agree with your assessment, although I’d defend engineers by saying not all think that way, and add that many problems were caused by suppliers.
In late 1990 RAF suppliers at Harrogate decided to implement a policy whereby they would wait for an outstanding demand before initiating (a) procurement or (b) repair. Of course, the fact that this relied entirely upon compressing a 6 – 18 month lead time into two days bothered them not, as it reduced the cost of spares holdings. RN engineering staffs who complained were shot down and like-minded MoD(PE) staffs were carpeted by SM’s Air Cdre; and when they didn’t desist, they wheeled out an AVM who threatened ever more dire consequences.
Related to the above, and at the same time, the same people refused to keep the RN’s war reserves and Contingency stocks serviceable. (Good move in 1990!).
Nor were the RN happy with some key (fully repairable) avionic LRUs being declared Consumable. Some joker obviously thought this would save on repair costs (true), happy in the knowledge that another branch would have to find infinitely more money to replace perfectly good LRUs which had been scrapped. In mitigation, we had to pretend we’d scrapped them, and arrange for repairs to be carried out on the quiet at 4th line. (Don’t ask, but this minor deceit saved millions).
As someone who witnessed this first hand, what struck me was the typical RN representation was CPO, or perhaps a civilian engineer; whereas the RAF suppliers would willingly field an Air Cdre or AVM to bully such juniors, who were only trying to help their users (you), into submission. Not the slightest interest in wasted money or the effect on front line – they couldn’t see past the fact some jumped up minion could have the temerity to challenge these practices. Nothing has changed. The RN continued to suffer for many years, as I’m sure Bagman knows. I’m equally sure that he and some of his colleagues would like to get their hands on the genius who agreed that 10 LRUs was sufficient to achieve a full fleet fit to 13 AEWs (never mind spares)! That’s not lean, that’s lunacy. Engineers sorted that one out. Again, don’t ask, but the story of an Admiral (which is indicative of the value) being asked to sign approval to procure, long after delivery, is legendary.
Hope this adds some perspective.