000007674 001__ 7674 000007674 005__ 20240531164759.0 000007674 02470 $$2doi$$a10.24868/issn.2515-818X.2020.032 000007674 035__ $$a4486856 000007674 037__ $$aGENERAL 000007674 245__ $$aHow a shortage of manpower was turned into a successful, efficient design and build process 000007674 269__ $$a2020-10-05 000007674 336__ $$aConference Proceedings 000007674 520__ $$aThe Walrus Class ocean going submarines were designed for Cold War missions. Their strategic, NATO based, operational area was the North Atlantic. Already during their building phase at the end of the Cold war the political scene altered. Fortunately, this diesel electric submarine proved easily adjustable to the new circumstances without major technical changes. The four Walrus boats have been active in many different areas and with new missions. To continue to perform several mission critical operational systems had to be updated and to ensure the operational performance until 2025-2030 fundamental improvements were considered necessary. For the Life Extension Program the Naval Staff carried out a study to establish the Operational Requirements as a basis for the LEP. MoD experienced shortage in a technical knowledge base in numbers and in capability. This was compensated by an industry initiative, based on existing working traditions in the Netherlands of collaboration between MoD, the research institutes and the industry, the so called “Triple Helix/Golden Ecosystem”. The Dutch Underwater Knowledge Center (DUKC) proposed to provide support for the LEP engineering phase. Subsequently five of its members formed a joint design team and presented a generic plan to DMO. The participating companies agreed to form an independent consulting engineering team. The essential ingredient for this collaborative process is the jointly felt responsibility for performance, cost control and delivery times. The contract was on a “price not to exceed” basis. This was an important condition for cost control because initially there were only limited and general technical requirements. The second novel aspect was the interaction with the various navy departments involved. WESP had direct interaction not only with the DMO project organization but also with the Naval Shipyard, the Joint IV Command, the Submarine Service and the Operational school. The DMO team gladly reciprocated, resulting in an effective communication scheme. The WESP team was an integral part within DMO project teams during the dialogue and selection phase with the contractors. The main responsibility or the WESP teams was the assessment of platform integration risks and mitigation measures during the different engineering phases. The LEP planning recognized three phases: an engineering study phase aimed at the selection of new components and defining new arrangements, a detailed design phase and an implementation phase. The Naval Dockyard would be responsible for the LEP related shipyard work. WESP proved that experienced professionals from (in this case four) industrial companies and a research institute, working as a team of independent consulting engineers interacting directly with DMO specialists has been the success factor for the engineering of the LEP. It shows that a shortage can be turned around into a programmatic success and it demonstrated that such a submarine ecosystem is mandatory for the upkeep of the submarine service. 000007674 542__ $$fCC-BY-4.0 000007674 7001_ $$aJurgens, A$$uNevesbu B.V. Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, the Netherlands 000007674 7001_ $$aPrins, C$$uIndependent Member Dutch Underwater Knowledge Center (DUKC), the Netherlands 000007674 773__ $$tConference Proceedings of INEC 000007674 773__ $$jINEC 2020 000007674 789__ $$whttps://zenodo.org/record/4486856$$2URL$$eIsIdenticalTo 000007674 85641 $$uhttps://www.imarest.org/events/inec-2020$$yConference website 000007674 8564_ $$959e89e02-b412-4198-a46f-06389ae273d0$$s696000$$uhttps://library.imarest.org/record/7674/files/INEC_2020_Paper_46.pdf