Preserving capacity, General Tom Lawson, Chief of the Defence Staff, Keys to Canadian SAR
Issue link: http://vanguardcanada.uberflip.com/i/337874
M MARITIME 20 JUNE/JULY 2014 www.vanguardcanada.com pliers. "[Babcock] is establishing these really strategic partnerships and increasingly building Cana- dian sources of supply for some of these subcomponents," Duffley said. "We were challenged with dormant supply chains when we first got the submarines. Babcock is much better positioned to reju- venate these supply chains and, to the greatest extent possible, with Canadian sources of supply." The nature of the relationship has also allowed the navy to do its work with a much smaller foot- print. "Whether it is procurement per person or other metrics, VISSC does enable us to deliver the prod- uct with a small group of special- ists," Duffley said. "We could not do it the old way with the structure we have." While submarines are unlike any other vessel in the navy, pro- cesses and principles for material assurance and risk management are being leveraged – "as much on the philosophical level as the engineering level" – as the navy advances with the Joint Support Ship (JSS), Arctic and Patrol Ship (AOPS) and the Canadian Sur- face Combatant. "This relational contracting is a new attitude that needs to be built into people's DNA as we move forward. Because we have a mutual long-term view, we are better placed to make more strate- gic decisions to improve efficiencies than our traditional approach of independent contracts or competing things on a five-year basis. That long view needs to be brought up more." Babcock Canada is also looking to expand the relationship with the RCN as it recapitalizes the surface fleet. The company says the VISSC program has established strong domestic ISS capability and capacity on both coasts, which will be further augmented by best practices gained from Babcock International's support to the Royal Navy's submarine and surface fleets. "These domestic skills and capabilities have already been applied to supporting other clients' surface fleets, as evidenced by the work being done with Chantier Davie to refit the Canadian Coast Guard's flagship heavy Arctic icebreaker, the Louis St. Laurent," said Brett Johnson, vice president of Business Development – Ma- rine & Technology. The company believes new approaches to the provision of in- service support can play a key part in making the Canadian Armed Force's Defence Renewal initiative possible. Adopting an integrated approach to fleet management in which RCN personnel work coop- eratively with an industry-led ISS team could enable a larger portion of navy personnel to focus directly on operations, while ensuring the ongoing availability of fleet assets to support them. Innovative approaches to integrating RCN personnel directly into the indus- try team could support skill retention, and adopting performance- based ISS metrics could incentivize industry to increase platform availability and optimize fleet support costs over time. "Babcock's extensive experience in providing this type of ISS to the Royal Navy surface fleet over many years has shown it to be both operationally effective and cost-effective," said Gordon Fleming, Babcock Canada's chief operating officer. "We believe this approach could offer significant benefits to the RCN on fu- ture programs." For the navy, Chicoutimi marks a significant turning point. Once she begins operations, the RCN will embark on a steady state tem- po of having just one submarine in deep maintenance at a time, a newfound level of predictability to a program that has been any- thing but predictable. "Up until recently we have been very challenged with managing several of these deep maintenance activities simultaneously," Duf- fley acknowledged. But he said the experience gained over that period has given the navy the capacity and expertise to respond should the unpredictable strike again. "It's hard to measure that quality, but we have come a long way in the last few years." That capacity is also a national strategic asset, says Norman. "Canada has maintained a viable submarine capability when it came very close to losing it. And as a maritime nation with the largest ocean estate of any country in the world, I submit that having that submarine capability will be essential to Canada's sov- ereignty. "It's not just about developing submariners; it's not just about the torpedoes and other stuff. The real test is the ability to have that deep strategic capacity, to train your people, to maintain your own boats, to take them apart and rebuild them – that's a true measure of whether you are really in the business or dabbling. That is why the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy is so important. NSPS isn't just about delivering the ships, it's about building the capacity across a whole set of fleets. That is the mark of a strategic approach to maritime power." The VISSC might not be that exact path to the future, but its lessons are a template the RCN will rely on as it draws up sustain- ment contracts for AOPS, JSS and the surface combatant. SUPPORT Under VISSC, Babcock Canada provides support in five key areas: project management, records support, systems engineering, material and logistics support, and maintenance support. For project management, Babcock utilizes a service delivery framework based on sound project management practices and processes covering the traditional knowledge areas of project integration, scope, time cost, quality, human resources, communications, safety and risk, and procurement. Records support includes configuration management services, configuration audits, maintenance of the technical data packages, including updates resulting from engineering changes, and QA live file management. Engineering support includes systems integration, systems engineering, logistical support analysis and technical assistance support, technical investigation engineering support and developing engineer- ing change installation packages. Material and logistics support includes procurement of all third line submarine parts, management of repair and overhaul submarine items, integrated logistics support, Bill of Materials definition, and warehousing. Maintenance support includes the scope definition for level 1 and 2 maintenance, work package defi- nition for level 3 maintenance (EDWPs), planning, scheduling, estimating, and execution of the EDWPs, and deployed maintenance services.