Executive Summary
The program to design and construct the Collins Class Submarine has become one of the most complex and expensive Defence procurement programs in history. It was devised to replace the existing Oberon submarine fleet. The Collins Class Submarine program demonstrated the capacity of Australian industry to manufacture a world-class submarine. Nonetheless, the procurement of the Collins Class Submarines has not been without criticism. The program has experienced various project management issues that ultimately lead to increased costs and time delays. This report will address these issues along with traditional Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and non-traditional KPIs and their interrelationships.
1.0 Introduction
The Collins Class is a class of six Australian-built diesel-electric submarines operated by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). The Collins Class Submarines are designed for long-range maritime patrol and response, maritime strike and support. The Defence Corporate Plan 1996-2000 states that introduction of the Collins Class Submarine into service is a key strategy in achieving Defence’s foremost objective of making the Australian Defence Force (ADF) capable of defeating any attack, which could credibly be mounted against Australia.
The Project Office was created in 1982 and a contract with the Australian Submarine Corporation Pty Ltd (ASC) was signed in June 1987. The first submarine, HMAS Collins, was launched in August 1993. This was a significant achievement for ASC and its subcontractors given that the production program commenced at widely separated sites in 1987 and ran in parallel with design and system development (ANAO, 1998).
2.0 Quality
2.1 Designing the Collins Class
The Collins-class...
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...dertaken within the Defence environment.
The Collins class submarines used leading edge of technology and were specifically designed for Australia’s special requirements. Despite all the issues discussed, the Project has some significant project management, engineering and construction achievements which in many ways demonstrate the capacity of Australian Industry to manufacture world-class submarines. Meanwhile, many of the mechanical, technical and combat system problems of the Collins class submarines have now been resolved. The latest review indicates that the availability of the submarines for deployment has increased significantly (ABC, 2014). However, the actual procurement process was risky because it had unclear objectives, unrealistic expectations, adopted untried construction processes, and was dominated by inexperienced supervision and management.
The Trident Submarine houses twenty-four nuclear warheads with each having a range of 4,600 miles over land. If a nuclear war were to break out between the Soviet Union and the United States, virtually every major city could be destroyed in a matter of hours. The origin of these major players in modern day warfare lies in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars.
...was recognized for having been travelled remarkably long on its engine before breaking down which exceeded industry standards. The crew were congratulating for their heroics and recognized their arduous task of manning the troublesome submarines.
... Harbour on 19 February: in total, 45 Allied warships and merchant vessels were in the harbour at the time of the raids. The warships included the United States Navy destroyer and seaplane tender . The RAN ships in port were the sloops and, corvettes and, auxiliary minesweepers and, patrol boat Coongoola, depot ship, examination vessel, lugger, and four boom-net ships. Several USN and Australian troop ships were in the harbour along with a number of merchant vessels of varying sizes. Most of the ships in the harbour were anchored near each other, making them an easy target for air attack. In addition to the vessels in port, the American Army supply ships Don Isidro and, Philippine vessels acquired as part of the South West Pacific Area command's permanent Army fleet earlier in February, were near Bathurst Island bound for the Philippines on the morning of the raid.
I learned many things from the different naval experiences that these men were confronted with, but what had intrigued me was the vast majority of naval technology used during the war and its particular job as well as who had control over the vast majority of it. The future Fleet Admirals were appointed certain jobs, and were each given different naval ships they had to command with knowledge, and each played a role in the Allied victory in the sea. Before the war each officer held on a variety of vessels, battleships, submarines, aircraft carriers, and how the development of each type of vessel influenced the course of naval warfare. While battleships had reigned as the most reliable and preferred vessel of the seas, their supremacy was soon challenged by the uprising of the carrier. Leahy was the oldest of the four who had clung to his view of the vessel he felt was reliable and he believed strongly in the battleship's power. Nimitz was an advocate of the submarine as a strategic and very effective weapon as it could be evasive to vessels on the sea’s surface. Halsey was a devotee of the destroyer but eventually came to under...
Stevens, David. "The Australian Corvettes." Royal Australian Navy. Commonwealth of Australia, n.d. Web. 19 Feb. 2014.
The navy workspace is most commonly out on the sea, on a ship, or in a submarine. Part of the Navy’s mission is to maintain freedom of the seas, thus the sea is their workplace. The design of many of these vessels does not allow for tremendous amounts of space or access to the outside world. A ship in the middle of the ocean is constricting of a person’s mobility. Thus the ideal is to function as a crew and to work as a unit in order to accomplish the goal. The tight quarters emphasize connecting with your fellow shipmates.
The Korean People’s Navy has a large inventory of well equipped submarine ranging from attack subs to midget type subs. Attack subs have improved sonar, and capable of carry 14 torpedoes or 28 mines. While the midget type subs are used for clandestine operation with the Special Operation forces.
The Wallace Group is seeking to secure future contracts with the Navy and Air Force via the Electronics group. This potential workload is vital to the success of the Electronics group as the future contracts would be profitable for the group.
Bjorn Ericksen and his team have embarked on a long and expensive project designed to help them win the next Whitbread World Sailboat Race. Using the above proposed plan, the team should be well prepared to design, build and sail their vessel to victory. Although they are certain to experience setbacks, problems and delays, having a priority matrix, a project network, and a Gantt chart will provide a solid plan that will easily keep their project on track. Once they have finished the race and reviewed their performance, defending their championship will become next year's objective.
Spokane Industries has contracted Franklin Electronics for an 18 month product development contract. Franklin Electronics is new to using project management methodologies and have not been exposed to earned value management methodologies. Even though Franklin and Spokane have worked together in the past, they have mainly used fixed price contracts with little to no stipulations. For this project Spokane Industries is requiring Franklin Electronics to use formalized project management methodologies, earned value cost schedules, and schedules for reports and meetings. Since Franklin Electronics had had no experience with earned value management, the cost accounting group was trained in the methodology in order to bid for the project. Franklin Electronics won the contract because they had the lowest price. They developed a work breakdown structure that consisted of 45 work packages with 4 of the work packages being delivered in the first 4 months. They also developed a simple status report consisting of the work packages due, budgeted cost for work scheduled, budgeted cost for work performed, actual cost for work performed, cost variance and price variance. When they deliver the first status report, the Franklin Electronics project manager is called into an emergency meeting because Spokane Industries vice president is unhappy with the progress. In this paper, we will discuss Six Sigma process improvement for tracking time and cost, recommendations on how Franklin Electronics can use project management principles to meet their goal of improving efficiency and empowering management to make better and informed decisions through the use of Earned Value Management, how an effective Earned Value Management System contributes ...
wanted a navy that was 35% the size of the royal navy. 3 months later,
In the thirty-eight years of the United States Naval Submarine Service no United States submarine had ever sunk an enemy vessel. With the ignition of the Second World War the poorly equipped and poorly trained Silent Service, nicknamed for the limited access of the media to the actions and achievements of the submarines, would be thrust into the position American submariners had longed for. The attack on Pearl Harbor left the United States Navy with few options for retribution. The three remaining aircraft carriers were to be “the last line of defense.” Commander Stuart S. Murray made the precarious situation clear to his skippers, captains, upon sending them on their first war patrol. He stressed the importance of smart sailing by warning them not “to go out there and win the Congressional Medal of Honor in one day. The submarines are all we have left.” We entered the war with 55 submarines, 27 at Pearl Harbor and 28 at Cavite in the Philippines. At first our submarine strategies lacked ingenuity and failed to use our subs to their full potential. United States subs were assigned to reconnaissance, transporting supplies, and lifeguard duty, picking up downed airmen and sailors. They were even, on occasion, sent to rescue high profile Americans on the run from the enemy or from islands under enemy siege. Although their ability was, unfortunately, wasted in our entrance to the Pacific Theater the Silent Service would soon gain the recognition its men yearned for.
Project management is said to be completed within time when it completed within the “triple constraints”: cost, time and quality. And in a lot of causes, one them is sacrificed so as to meet the other two. Project managers prioritize which ones are the most important.
Webmaster. "Guided Bomb Unit-28 (GBU-28) Bunker Buster." Military Analysis Network. 28 February. 1998. 19 March. 2004.
Westerveld, E., The Project Excellence Model®: linking success criteria and critical success factors, International Journal of Project Management, Volume 21, Issue 6, August 2003, Pages 411-418. Science Direct [Accessed 10th February 2014]