Well, there are a sparse handful of managers who actually do know the equipment. The problem I see here is that the "finish line" is so close and this project is so over schedule and over buget that we've got a lot of corporate oversight by a bunch of bozos. These bozos in question are actually pretty smart, within their own realm of expertise. There are masters of regulatory requirements and procedures. They just don't know how most of the equipment works. Almost anybody can read up, study and memorize how is supposed to work; but there's no replacement for seeing is in action after tearing it down and rebuilding it. The best ones though; they'll hear the problem. Ask for input (starting with the junior guy in the room, there's a reason for that), and make a decision (if I agree with it is irrelevent it's not my neck on the block).
One or two guys have asked us for input and run with it, getting on their phones to either get parts for us or engineering support or whatever we need. I'll do whatever I can for a good manager. They are hard to come by.