Interesting to read this thread. The observation that I have made is that the problems that face good old FLS seem to be industry wide. No matter where you go in this industry, office staff seem to reign supreme, yet it is the blokes in overalls that service and maintain the aeroplanes. At the place that I work, Lowest Quote rules the day. Yet this is false economy. Some of the consumable tooling (ie No. 2 bits) can be bought very cheaply. Yet for a few pence more you can get the same product but it will last far longer. Try telling that to an Engineering Accountant!