Honeywell Aero CEO calls planned GE Aerospace-CPP deal positive for industry

Castings — parts made from liquid metal that are difficult to mass-produce — and forgings, which are made from solid metal and just as hard to make, have been one of the industry's most intractable chokepoints since the pandemic.

Some suppliers have also wrestled with labor shortages following widespread departures of experienced aerospace workers during the pandemic. To tackle that issue, Honeywell Aerospace has sent dozens of its own skilled workers to two of its suppliers' factories, Currier said.

That, in turn, has helped suppliers start additional shift operations at their factories. “And the output transition that we've seen over the last 30 to 45 days has been about (a) 30% increase year on year,” Currier said.

Still, the company continues to wrestle with about 70 companies that are not producing quality products on time, Currier said, although that is down from the 2022 count of hundreds of suppliers.