Reader commentary 4 Dec 2014 - DMO and project management

Reader Johnno in regard to the DMO and project management. This post was the conversation starter.

Johnno

12 years plus is realistic if DMO is managing it because they treat each project as a stand alone activity which is stood up, runs for better or worse, then is closed.

There is absolutely no consistency, there is a total inability to carry lessons learned forward from one project to the next and there is a completely unstable workload. First reforms needed are in government (Political and administrative). You cannot treat an industry as just marginal seats.

To prove DMO's inability I offer the following example in the somewhat simple job of subcontracting steel work on the AWD.

DMO has never put out a clear statement of who is doing what module but, each AWD has 31 blocks::

The original plan for each ship was 7 blocks at ASC, 13 blocks BAe (plus LHD modules -6 per LHD) and 10 blocks at Foregas with 1 block (the bow sonar foundation) from Spain.

That allocation last precisely 12 months before the overload at BAe was recognised. Putting aside what BAe may have promised or said, DMO had a nearly a 20 year working relationship with the Melbourne yard now owned by BAe (FFG's 5 and 6, and the 10 ANZAC's) and should have known what it could and could not do. There is no excuse available to DMO. You pay a procurement organisation to protect you from salesmen's promises.

Module construction for the AWD has been unstable ever since so it is hardly surprising that productivity is still lagging except apparently at BAe which claims to be meeting the government target of 80 man hours per tonne for fabrication.

For the record BAe produced 7 blocks for the first AWD, It was intended, to give priority to the LHD work, it would only do 2 blocks (each) for AWD's 2 and 3 but it now seems to have done 4 blocks for ship 2 and will do 10 blocks for ship 3.

The above is not exactly a demonstration of DMO's planning abilities.
PS: Before ASIO starts looking for leaks you can figure out most of the above from Departmental. ASC and BAe press releases plus the audit report if you have been reading them.....and a little bit of industry knowledge.

QED: DMO needs to look its own capabilities. You cannot manage if you don't know at least as much as the other side of the table.

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