To keep your team on track during supply chain delays in aerospace engineering, reallocate resources to focus on tasks that don't depend on delayed materials. Maintain open communication with suppliers to anticipate timelines, and keep your team informed of updates. Adjust project timelines, prioritize critical path tasks, and explore alternative suppliers or temporary solutions if feasible. Encourage flexibility and collaboration to ensure productivity while minimizing the impact of delays.

What I found helpful is to plan the work earlier than expected and put a track with steady achievement dates to make sure parts are available on time, more also auditing the supplier and making sure he is capable to handle the supply demand is key to prevent any work stoppage.

A Good team leader can make the flow of work possible by his good planning and skills and TAT to reduce by good supply chain and skills team

Most organisations have a quality control system for suppliers in place. This typically include some kind of test piece that you can evaluate them on. And that takes time and can make it difficult to change supplier. The solution to that is to make sure that you always have at least two suppliers in place for the same part, and that you regularly work with both of them. This will allow you flexibility of one falls behind. Also foster flexibility in your team and make sure that you have redundancy, allowing team members to step into each others roles for support when needed.

Work on your deficiencies, streamline your process. Share all the tools with your team. The tools they need to make our business successful.

Supply in the aerospace industry is based on full part traceability above all else, sort term substitute materials are a no, unless pre-qualified and fully traceable. Certain large OEMs mandate duel sourcing of the same product, which can be same supplier but from different parts of the world

Redundant resources in any engineering activities is a must. So to be on safe side never delay it till last moment. You may have access to many vendors in aerospace production process. So try to make a database of all the suppliers in different fields and in any critical condition call them in order.

Supply chain delays can disrupt aerospace projects, but keeping your team on track is essential. Here’s how: Proactive Planning: Anticipate delays by working closely with suppliers and having backup options for critical components. Clear Communication: Keep all teams informed with strong cross-functional communication and use project management tools to stay aligned. Prioritize Critical Parts: Focus on securing key components and maintain buffer stock for high-risk items. Agile Adjustments: Adapt workflows so the team can work on other tasks while waiting for delayed parts. Supplier Collaboration: Build strong supplier relationships to navigate delays together.

Maintain small shops, machine, weld, electrical, pneumatic (etc) that are populated with competent personnel that can fabricate bottleneck parts via the MRB process.

Keeping the production flow moving, especially in a small run program, is a constant juggling game. I have never seen a project that doesn't need to shuffle the build sequence to handle delays in material delivery. Where alternate suppliers or parts are possible, it can add flexibility. Especially for critical hardware. But beware, using too many alternates can become a configuration management nightmare! Also, rather than planning for "just in time" delivery, warehouse parts, especially fasteners and other commodity hardware where possible. This can prevent a single bolt from grinding production to a halt.