"There's been a surge and increase in demand," said Paul Nisbet, founder of JSA Research of Rhode Island. "It's outstripping the capabilities of some suppliers to supply parts."
Members of Teamsters Local 1150 went on strike Monday after voting Sunday to reject Sikorsky's contract offer.
Milford resident Thomas Murphy II, who took a break from the picket line Wednesday morning to join a "Bikers for Strikers" motorcycle ride down Route 110 in Stratford, blames Sikorsky President Steve Finger for the lack of parts. Murphy is a facilities thermographer, which he described as using infrared cameras to scan the facility to prevent equipment breakdowns and check for wasted energy. He's been with Sikorsky for nearly eight years.
Finger, Murphy said, outsourced the parts making to vendors who can't keep up with Sikorsky employees' need for the parts.
"The bottom line is the almighty dollar," he said, blaming a "bunch of bean counters" who think what the union workers do is "cookie-cutter assembly," when it's not.
Many workers interviewed Tuesday at the Bridgeport plant made similar claims.
Nisbet said Sikorsky has a great deal of work from all over the world at a
That affects the company's ability to get spare parts for new helicopters and maintaining existing aircraft, he said. A real problem is the parts the company needs aren't "off-the-shelf items," Nisbet said, but instead are custom made for Sikorsky. This makes it difficult to try to go out and find another supplier capable of doing the work.
Sikorsky, like many U.S. manufacturers, has adopted a lean approach to manufacturing, which relies on suppliers being able to fill orders in short periods of time and allows the company to cut down on warehousing space.
Sikorsky, for one, has found other uses for that space.
In July 2004, the company opened its commercial aircraft center in what used to be warehouse space for parts in the Stratford plant. Workers build the S-76 and S-92 helicopter lines in that center, according to the company.
Workers said relying on other companies to fill those orders and not having enough back stock might be the problem.
But Nisbet said Sikorsky is stuck with its supply chain and can't abandon it. It would take a year to change the system, he said, and that doesn't make good business sense.
In the meantime, Nisbet said, the union picked a good time to strike, because there is a lot of work to do and that would appear to place it in a strong bargaining position.
However, Sikorsky's operations only account for about 5 percent of United Technologies Corp.'s revenue, according to Nisbet, which may be one reason there doesn't appear to be a rush to restart negotiations.
UTC reported net income of $3.1 billion in 2005, up from $2.68 billion in 2004. Sikorsky's net operating profits for 2005 were $250 million, up 25 percent from 2004's $200 million in operating profit.
YourMoney editor Pam Dawkins contributed to this report.
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