"Charles Talleyrand" wrote
How is aircraft maintenance organized? Is you average mechanic assigned to a plane or
to
a subsystem? In other words, is the mechanic assigned to Airplane #1234, or to "left
wing hydraulics"?

Back when I was in (70's and 80's) we started out with the time-tested crew chiefs
and specialists. Using this system, the crew chiefs busted their ass on their plane, and
the specialists mostly operated the BBQ and stood around smoking. Somewhere in
the 80's they came up with the "everyone is a crew chief" concept, and specialists now
had to rig their own jets to work on their subsystems. Before, a crew chief hooked up
all the AGE and put it in a state where the specialists could begin work. Later, the
specialists met with the crew chief and the crew chief ordered all the AGE, and when
it arrived, the specialists hooked it up, and ran it. The crew chief then went off to do
his own work, or assist other specialists. On big planes, you have several crew chiefs
and probably five jobs being worked by various specialists. When everything's all
fixed, the crew chief owns the jet and they clean it up for the next flight and complete
the paperwork (most times today, the flight crew is in-place waiting for the crew chief
to release the jet, as they are almost never ready for flight at the crew-show time).

Where this tends to fail, is when you have an electronic specialist (for example) given
the task of putting air in the tire. I think we've all seen the picture of the A1C
blown-up
on the ramp, with his nice regulation haircut being the only thing left of his head, when
he decided to air up the nose wheel with the hi-pressure cart. Speaking of BBQ meat...

Back in Thailand, many crew chiefs deployed to central shops, instead of being assigned
individual tail numbers. Today, almost all jet tail numbers have a crew chief, and
assistant.
They own the whole jet, and are responsible for the 781 forms that say it is ready for
flight.