@trevj, I have zero problems flying in an airliner repaired by mechanics who do not count their tools. Per mile travelled, WAAAY more people die in cars than in airliners. If counting tools mattered so much, car repair mechanics should be
required to count their tools too.
People also sometimes find operating room tools in their bodies. Perhaps surgeons should also be required to count tools.
I am not challenging the fact that it happens. I am challenging the merits of the approach.
VERY IMPORTANT - I am not saying it's wrong to use strict conformity to following orders as an entry requirement for military service -
@mbond made that case for you. However, I do think we should not blindly accept that premise as valid for the piler/filer behaviours too. At least not without allowing debate. Debate is good.
I most certainly don't agree that military customs (right or wrong) should apply to hobbiests. 2/3 of us have self confessed that we are on the messy side.
As I mentioned earlier, I plan to research this in more detail on my own.
LOL! Maybe you ought learn some about how tool control in an Airline Environment is actually conducted. Saw very similar care used in the Bell Helicopters plant and the Canadair Plants in the Montreal area. My direct thought, is that WAY more of the AME's are starting and ending their days accounting for their tools so that they don't get fired, first and foremost, and don't get found Negligent in a Civil or potentially Criminal case against them. Esp., in the larger Airlines, they seemed to me to be moving more towards the CF's model of a closed Tool Control Environment, than the techs having their own Tool Boxes. Standards, ISO, Liability issues, etc., all teaming up to push them that way.
Most, if not all the shops I went through or toured, had CNC cut foam liners in their tool boxes, and they knew where every tool they needed or used in a particular day, was.
Like I said earlier, these procedures were developed as a direct result of Lives and Assets being lost, over stupid preventable errors.
A little more on the CF and tool control. Every Tool box, Kit, or Pouch, in the Air Force, anyway, has a two letter code, representing it's Base of Origin (Cold Lake AB used "OD"), and a number that designates which box or kit it is. That letter and number combo is etched, engraved, or stamped in to every tool in that kit, right down to the interchangeable screwdriver bits. The first thing a tech does, is access the box key from the tool crib, for which they are required to sign it out. At the tool box, it is opened, and inspected for completeness, and the log book for the tool box or kit is signed, acknowledging that the tool box is complete and serviceable. End of day, or end of job, the reverse takes place, the kit is certified complete, the keys go back to the Crib and are signed in, and the appropriate Records are updated on the Aircraft Maintenance Record. Takes less time to do, than to tell about... Really.
In order to start a repair on an aircraft, it starts in the Aircraft's Records set, (pretty much mainly done on computers now, but was all hard copy forms when I started out) where a Form has been filled out detailing the issue. The tech fetches the tool kit he is likely going to need, then makes an entry stating that, for example, Tool Box OD-263, is now in use on this aircraft. That aircraft will NOT fly, until someone has inspected the toolbox, and certified it as complete, and signs off the entry. If a tool is not present, all hell breaks loose, and I have spent entire weekends combing through the fleet in Moose Jaw (we were putting 112 Tutor aircraft out on the flight line every morning, most flew at least three flights a day), searching for missing tools.
IF a tool is found in an airplane, the inquisition begins, tracing back to the Kit and it's records, a search through the aircraft records set to see if the kit had been registered as in use, and who signed it in and out. Similar forensics are used in the event of an unexplained crash, they immediately seize and secure the aircraft records, find out what was done recently, by whom, and the questions begin... NOT 'good times'!
The Forces Vehicle Mechanics that I knew, each were issued with a tool kit, of Forces Owned Tools, that they were responsible to account for and maintain. Damaged or non-serviceable tools got exhanged in their respective tool cribs, lost tools were (I was told) their personal responsibility, as often as not by administratively deducting cost of replacement tools, off their pay. They had an inventory record, and were expected to know where their tools were at all times. Some guys I knew used loosely piled tools in the drawers, others went out of their own way to make or purchase organizers so that they could tell at a glance that their tools were accounted for. The more organized the tool box is, the easier it is to have confidence that it is all there.
Sorry to hear about your folks with the extra hardware... If only the surgeon and his assistants had a standard tray of tools that had a place for each thing needed, and a process for checking that you have all, at the beginning, as well as at the end, of the procedure, eh? Which I would be fairly willing to bet, most OR's likely have standing policies denoting who is responsible or just that kind of accounting... The Flight Safety guys use a phrase regarding Swiss Cheese Theory, a reference to that depending on the holes that usually don't line up on a stack of Swiss Cheese slices, to NEVER line up, is a recipe for getting someone hurt or killed, because with enough tries at randomly shuffling and stacking all the slices, eventually, you get the holes lined up and something gets through...
When you account for all your tools at both ends of the job, fewer 'bad things' happen...
