Tapping the Lean Machine: How a Jet-Engine-Servicing Plant in Brazil Solved the Puzzle of Missing Spare Parts

Soon after the pandemic hit in 2020, a team of logistics employees at a GE Aerospace plant in Brazil that services jet engines detected something odd, and worrisome: The number of available spare parts, used to repair engines, had dropped dramatically because of a cut in air freight deliveries. And those that did arrive often came in patchwork fashion and wound up stuck on the ground at Rio de Janeiro’s Galeão International Airport, stalled by lengthy import-paperwork delays. The consequences were potentially serious.