The comments on this tread are interesting to me as I ran an AMF type unit for many a year. Heres what I noticed about the Serviceman vs Civvy thing. If our crews got an aircraft out on time they would get a day off and if it was early they would get more days off until the next jet/helo came in. On the jet line (all servicemen) many a day off was had but on the Helo lines (some lines service some civvy) the service crews would get their time off but the civvies usually ran over because they weren't interested in time off as much as they were at getting the extra pay from overtime. They even resorted to saving up defects that would emerge during the latter engine runs and test flights forcing us to allow late work and Sat/Sun work and hence attract a lot of overtime pay. What do you expect when the pay wasn't so good. These were all ex service folks but don't it change when you are on the other side.
Notwithstanding late emergent work (that found during the engine run and test flight phase) I don't understand why today's emergent work should cause such delays. Its called planning. After about half a dozen aircraft through the system you should know what the average is as a percentage of the known planned package. Then you add it to the planned package and you have your program. Then add the right level of manpower to fit in the available days. Usually worked for me and my exceptionally good team.
Sharmine