How can I reply to the following peer post and follow it up with a question?

Hello everyone,

As an aircraft maintainer, the Air Force's supply system is critical to accomplishing the mission. We use it for almost everything we do, but it is not a perfect system. Like other supply chains, it has highs and lows regarding supply and demand. The ups are simple. If it is needed, it is available. The lows, however, require some innovative thought. I recall many times when we would remove a component from another aircraft as a temporary solution until we received another part. Believe it or not, that is a standard practice in our job.

The only recommendation I can make for creating more value for stakeholders is to increase part availability. That is a difficult task as demand constantly fluctuates, but not having a part available increases workloads and duplicates efforts. Further, removing a component from an aircraft to fix another brings elevated concerns if something happens to it. Should an issue occur, two planes would be unusable, hindering our ability to execute our mission.

Due to the nature of manufacturing combat aircraft in the United States, it is difficult to determine which future freight flow scenario the Air Force should prepare for. However, I believe that the global marketplace scenario would be a concern. In that case, global trading and resource availability is high. Meaning goods are available from many vendors worldwide, and there is a lower reliance on self-production. For the Air Force, that would mean a possible shift to relying on other countries for parts as it would be cheaper. Either that or it would incur elevated costs to maintain supply in the United States.

To prepare for that, the Air Force should consider investing in joint programs similar to the F-35. That program increased sustainability and interoperability at a lower cost. It also increased part availability as many countries can produce and supply components for a worldwide demand amongst partners.