Outsourcing and Outfitting Practices. Implications for the Ministry of Defence Shipbuilding Programmes

摘要

The United Kingdom's Ministry of Defense (MOD) tasked the RAND Corporation to assess the outsourcing and outfitting practices of various countries' shipbuilders in an effort to provide recommendations for the ministry to better manage the production of two new aircraft carriers, as well as other new ships for the Royal Navy. The research effort finds that the shipbuilders in the United Kingdom should continue to use their current outsourcing practices as they build the new warships. However, these builders also should consider expanding these efforts by having subcontractors build crew cabins, meeting rooms, dining facilities, galleys, and other portions of the ship that could be supplied and installed as modules. Simultaneously, the shipbuilders should take advantage of outfitting practices used to build commercial vessels in other parts of Europe and Asia that allow the installation a variety of equipment pipes, electrical gear, and heating and ventilation systems at the earliest possible phase in the ships' production. So concludes this study, performed between May and September 2003, of options open to the MOD as it manages the production of the Royal Navy's two new aircraft carriers. We suggest that by taking advantage of the outsourcing and construction practices used in other parts of Europe and Asia to build commercial vessels, the MOD will be able to produce the new carriers more effectively and efficiently, preserve the United Kingdom's military ship industrial base, and maintain the production schedules of other warships being built for the Royal Navy.