DOD Letter Demands Plan To Address Quality And Schedule Problems

Sikorsky is still garnering a great deal of attention from the military regarding quality control of its parts and meeting delivery schedules.

As ANN reported, the US Navy discovered problems with tail rotors on some of its Seahawk helicopters after one tossed a blade inflight. The Navy's investigation blamed the failure on a "manufacturing defect."

Further inspections discovered similar problems with 41 other blades in service.

A scathing November 22 letter from commander of the Defense Contract Management Agency's (DCMA) Stratford office Navy Captain Dorothy Freer to Sikorsky's president Jeffrey Pino called the company's response to DOD complaints of last summer "inadequate."

Freer wrote, "It appears that management oversight is out of control and is driving quality escapes that are mounting in seriousness." She demanded the company take "immediate action" to deal with the "mounting risk," and gave a 30-day deadline to submit a plan.

The letter read in part, "The bottom line is that quality is deteriorating, schedule is not getting better in the short term, and the seriousness of the errors that are occurring are becoming untenable."

Freer said Sikorsky's heavy reliance on subcontractors and "the culture at Sikorsky" is the primary cause for its poor quality issues.

In early 2004 DCMA temporarily halted deliveries of Blackhawk helicopters after inspections turned up problems in Sikorsky's Stratford plant. Last summer Freer sent a letter expressing many of the same concerns of her November 22 letter.

Pino responded to last summer's letter from Freer that he had assigned then vice president for operations Tom Hutton to handle the problems. Hutton was to bring customer quality concerns to other company executives and arrange communications to get the message to office and factory workers.

Just last week, following Freer's latest letter, Hutton took a new job with Pratt & Whitney as vice president for global parts repair services. Sikorsky and Pratt are subsidiaries of United Technologies Corporation.

Sikorsky refuses to comment on the reason for Hutton's move other than to say vice presidents move between divisions all the time.

Sikorsky says it has responded to Freer's concerns by increasing from six to fifteen the number of inspectors stationed at Florida subcontractor Crestview Aerospace Corporation. It has also increased the number of inspections for critical parts such as flight controls and rotor blade connections.

FMI: www.sikorsky.com