Supplementary memorandum from the Ministry
of Defence
Question 62 (Mr Burstow): An amount of overlap
between project design and construction phases
In answer to question 62, Guy Lester undertook
to set out for the Committee the amount of overlap between project
design and construction phases for the Astute, Type 45 and Nimrod
projects. Before providing specific project information, it may
be useful to explain why projects include overlap in their planning.
For certain types of projects it is not necessary
to complete all aspects of the design work prior to the start
of construction. This is particularly true for maritime projects,
where programmes comprise a number of elements, and the full design
for some of these elements may be reserved for a later date, providing
the interface has been specified. For example, it is possible
to start construction of a submarine hull before the design of
the command and control system is finalised. As well as reducing
the time taken for the delivery of the capability, this approach
allows emergent technology to be utilised and reduces the chances
of equipment becoming obsolescent before it enters service. In
contrast, for other types of equipment such as aircraft, where
there is a greater degree of systems integration, there are fewer
opportunities for design and construction work to overlap as a
larger proportion of the design would normally need to be completed
prior to the start of construction.
It is part of the normal process of project
management to identify dependencies between project elements,
so that an efficient programme is developed that takes advantage
of opportunities for activities to occur in parallel and for technology
insertion during the manufacture phase.
Details of the overlap for individual projects
are below.
TYPE 45
The Type 45 project is not necessarily representative
of all ship projects as much of the design work was completed
under the earlier multinational Project HORIZON, with the Type
45 project inheriting a relatively mature design. The overlap
for the project is as follows:
Planned date for completion of main design phase:
April 2003
Actual date for completion of main design phase:
January 2004
Planned and Actual start of construction: March
2003
Actual Overlap: 10 months
NIMROD MRA4
It is not possible to provide a simple statement
of the overlap between different phases. The original contract
for Nimrod MRA4 in 1996 introduced some concurrency between the
design and construction phases. This approach was unsuccessful,
so in 2003 the contract was renegotiated to largely remove concurrency.
In 2006 the design was judged to have reached sufficient maturity
for full production to be re-commenced. Although design work was
continuing and therefore some concurrency remained, this was assessed
as being a low risk due to the maturity of the design at that
point.
ASTUTE
The planned overlap between Design and Manufacture
was three years. In practice, the actual overlap was as follows:
Completion of detailed design phase: June 2003
Start of construction: 2000
5 December 2008
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