The Boeing problem
This brings us to the FAA’s big problem at Boeing. Boeing, being the largest Production Certificate ODA with more than 1,500 employees in its ODA organization was “suspended” insofar as the FAA was issuing all the Certificates of Airworthiness to Boeing 737s and 787s. This requires boots on the ground, boots the FAA is already short of.
The FAA had to shift personnel to do this increased workload from somewhere, and that somewhere is from every other user in the system. Consultant Designees and Third Party firms have stepped up to increase their capacity, but the system is strained beyond reason. The ripples through the industry are felt as a stretch out in the flow times needed for Non-Boeing users to get FAA approvals for their products and services.
The headlines may be about Boeing and the FAA, but that’s the tip of the iceberg. The problems at Boeing are adversely affecting the entire industry as resources Boeing had normally supplied through their ODA are replaced by FAA personnel forcing Non-ODA users to wait in ever-stretching lines.