Jeffrey Bue had a retirement plan – which was to avoid it altogether! After ‘retiring’ from his engineering job at Lockheed Martin he went directly to working as a Nadcap Auditor for the Performance Review Institute (PRI) and found the ideal way to stay involved in the aerospace industry and travel to new locations.

“I live in Texas, but the companies seeking Nadcap accreditation are global,” he says. “Working as a Nadcap Auditor is a great way to travel to places I would never have visited. “I’ve been all over the world in my role. My favorite countries to visit include Japan, Malaysia, Spain and Germany.”

Jeffrey received a BS Chemistry from the University of Texas at Arlington in 1979. He started working for General Dynamics (later Lockheed Martin) in June, 1980. During his 36-year career with the company, he worked in the composites test laboratory as a supervisor in bonding and composites fabrication, as a materials and processes engineer, and as a field service engineer for maintenance. For his last three years with Lockheed Martin, he was manager of the Materials and Processes Engineering team in Fort Worth, Texas.

Change of focus

Jeffrey joined PRI in 2016 and originally worked full-time, though he now works part-time. In this role, he conducts audits of companies seeking Nadcap accreditation for critical processes which are used to manufacture aerospace parts for companies such as Boeing, Airbus, GE and Rolls Royce.

He is specifically responsible for conducting audits of facilities that use composite materials and processes, manufacture composite materials, and conduct specialized testing of composite materials. “The things I like most about auditing are staying intellectually engaged in the aerospace industry and meeting people from other countries and cultures,” he says.

Typical day

When conducting an audit, Jeffrey typically arrives at the facility around 8:30am and leaves around 3:30pm. Usually, he has already developed a plan with the company he is auditing.

“I get along with people very well, so most of my interactions with the workers and technicians go smoothly,” he says. “I like to let the auditee know immediately if I find or see something that could potentially result in a Non-Conformance Report. But sometimes that can be a tricky thing to do when you really need to wait until a job audit is completed before you comment. It’s not a good practice, nor is it fair to the company you’re auditing, to wait until the last day of the audit to reveal your findings.”

Prepare to succeed

Jeffrey sums up the best way to undertake an audit in these three words: ‘prepare, prepare, prepare’. “Take your time and be meticulous when making your travel plans. Don’t hesitate to reach out to experienced auditors. “Before the audit, look at the company’s last audit. Read the comments from the Auditor. Additionally, take time to fill out as much information as you can in the checklist before you arrive, using the auditee’s self-audit. “If you do these things, you can spend more time focusing on watching and observing during the audit itself. That’s very important to me.”