Preserving capacity, General Tom Lawson, Chief of the Defence Staff, Keys to Canadian SAR
Issue link: http://vanguardcanada.uberflip.com/i/337874
M MARITIME www.vanguardcanada.com JUNE/JULY 2014 19 This is really a gem to build upon." In 2008, the government awarded a $1.5 bil- lion, 15-year contract to the Canadian Subma- rine Management Group, a joint venture be- tween Babcock Marine and Weir Canada that has since been rebranded as Babcock Canada, to provide the in-service support for the four diesel- electric submarines. The deal signified a philosophical change in the way the RCN traditionally contracts for the support of major warship classes, by providing a longer term commitment and embedding it with multi-vessel refits, called Extended Docking Work Periods (EDWPs). The VISSC is the pri- mary interface between the design authority and Canadian industry, linking original equipment manufacturers (OEM) and field service represen- tative support for technical investigations, engi- neering services, and the management of repair and overhaul of the submarines. With each EDWP, the RCN and Babcock Canada overhaul over 200 submarine systems, Duffley explained. And the length of the VISSC contract means deep maintenance work can be performed multiple times in the same facility. "Just that simple perspective will allow us to build the compe- tencies and learn the lessons to do that significant work more ef- fectively," he said. "That was a change for us. Historically, we did all of the deep maintenance in our own DND maintenance facili- ties – we would have had a multitude of contracts with suppliers. But under VISSC, though we still have some separate contracts with OEMs, they have been reduced. We have fewer contracts to manage, which makes our business simpler to execute." HMCS Chicoutimi, the first submarine to undergo an EDWP managed by Babcock, originally entered her EDWP period in 2010 and was undocked in November 2013 at Victoria Ship- yards in Esquimalt. The EDWP consists of a collection of planned maintenance repair specifications and engineering capability up- dates that required the submarine to be out of the water, allowing the vessel to be checked, revalidated and updated. The mainte- nance is treated as a project and draws on every discipline of proj- ect management, supply chain and engineering to deliver an integrated plan. The submarine is currently in the final stages of system commissioning before her planned handover to the RCN. "The lessons that we learned from Chicoutimi are already being applied to Corner Brook, the next in line for its EDWP. We are much better positioned for success than we were for Chicoutimi," Duffley said. Babcock Canada, too, says it has captured the experience gained throughout the first EDWP, which includes several key lessons: • The implementation of a progressive approval process of Mate- rial Certification Objective Quality Evidence (OQE) facilitates the progression of work in the early stages of the EDWP. • Early involvement of the Material Certification team in the EDWP aids in resource loading for the team, thus reducing process challenges when they arise. • The development of an improved commissioning scheduling process will lead to a more progressive, structured and de-risked approach when returning vessel systems to operation. • Implementing a more holistic or "system of systems" approach helps to eliminate inefficiencies and non-value added process steps. The uniqueness of the material certification requirements is also acknowledged by the navy. Duffley says it is somewhat akin to air worthiness requirements for maintenance, a novel and demand- ing step that has necessitated significantly more paperwork than was the case in the past. "Along with that quality assurance documentation is an au- diting process that has to be welded into their production and commissioning regime as they take the submarines through their deep maintenance periods," he said. "That is certainly an area where we need to be more ag- gressive at improving. We have tended to backend load some of that activity. As we go forward (with the future fleet) we will be doing our best to spread that quality assurance load out throughout the work period." In reducing the number of con- tracts the navy must manage, greater responsibility has been shifted onto Babcock Canada to develop rela- tionships with the multitude of sup- Babcock is establishing really strategic partnerships and increasingly building Canadian sources of supply.