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| AWD's Hobart (foreground) & Brisbane (background/left) |
Adelaide-based shipbuilder ASC welcomes the Federal Government’s announcement regarding the long term reform arrangements for the AWD Program.
ASC Shipbuilding Interim CEO Mark Lamarre says the insertion of additional shipbuilding capability into the program builds on the program advances and productivity improvements ASC has made over the last 12-18 months.
“We are a learning organisation and we are applying the lessons learnt from the first ship to the second and third,” Mr Lamarre said.
“Since the commencement of the AWD Reform Strategy ASC has implemented a Five Point Strategy to improve program performance:
- Increasing shipbuilding experience;
- Actively reducing the cost base;
- Removing road blocks to the efficient and timely conduct of work;
- Controlling and driving discipline into program execution; and
- Accelerating learning.
“There’s been a 39 percent improvement on Ship 02 and a further 14 percent on Ship 03 and we are getting better every day,” he said.
“We launched the first ship Hobart in May this year at 78% percent complete – the highest rate of completion at launch for the F100 platform. Last week combat systems activation commenced on Hobart and the keel was laid for the third ship Sydney.
“Yesterday we saw the installation of a fully-outfitted mast on the second ship Brisbane – an effort that has taken 10,000 fewer hours than it did on the first ship; a 50 percent cost saving.
“The introduction of Navantia to lead a realigned Shipbuilding Integrated Product Team within the AWD Alliance will help us to efficiently complete the test, activation and trial stages of the ships,” Mr Lamarre said.
“This is an opportunity to further build our shipbuilding expertise and knowledge so that we can more effectively conduct our role as shipbuilder on the AWD Project,” he said.
“ASC already has a very good working relationship with Navantia and we look forward to continuing our close collaboration with them.”