Pooled Cutter Boat Industry Brief Nov11.ppt

Assistant Commandant for Engineering and Logistics (CG-4) United States Coast Guard

CG SFLC, Small Boat Product Line Kelly Wyatt, Contracting Officer LT Julia Presnell, Project Officer November 2011 Centralized Cutter Boat Pooling

United States Coast Guard

Background

1. In the present state, each Major Cutter is permanently assigned an OTH. While the Cutter is inport, the assigned OTH remains generally idle. While minimally used for training, the boat is not typically made available for deployed operations. CG data shows that on average about 60% of the OTH fleet inactive at any given time.

2. Inconsistent maintenance, long lay-up periods and improper storage have led to avoidable lost operational hours. In FY10, approximately 60% of the reported casualties supported by SBPL could have been avoided with consistent, proper maintenance.

3. In FY09, SBPL had a was able to provide a RFI spare boat to a cutter when needed for casualty support about 89% of the time. We have only been able to increase that support level by increasing the number of spare boats. Currently 22% of the Coast Guard’s OTH fleet is spare boats. It is not feasible for the CG to continue to procure boats with sparing levels this high. Another point is that when a RFI boat is not available, the CG works to “borrow” a boat from an in port cutter. Lending boats leads to significant delays in response time, inconsistent and unpredictable readiness, unnecessarily high logistics costs, and burdens inport Cutter Crews to prepare boats for shipping.

4. The current distribution of the OTH fleet has led to an underutilization of the assets. In FY11 OTH boats were operated an average of 130 hrs per cutter. Additionally, OTH boats are historically removed from service with less than 1,500 hours. Their shore-based counterparts operate a minimum of 500 hours per year with a total service life that frequently exceeds 10,000 hours.

SBPL theorized that a centralized boat pool concept for the OTH MKIII and MKIV could achieve significant cost avoidance and increase reliability:

In a centralized boat pool system, the CG would not need the same high number of boats and spare boats to meet the operational mission requirements of the Major Cutter fleet. And so the cost of fixed and variable maintenance could be reduced along with the number of active hulls. Likewise, the cutter crew time could be better utilized on cutter maintenance vice OTH maintenance while in port. In fact- the cutter workload can be reduced from by 135 hours of OTH maintenance each year.

The objective of this Centralized Cutter Boat Pool (CCBP) strategy will be to decrease the number of active CB-OTH MKIIIs the Coast Guard requires while simultaneously increasing the number of hours each boat in the pool is available for deployable operations. Under this CCBP program, while boats are assigned the contractor’s facility, they will undergo inspection, repair, programmed depot maintenance and covered storage.

United States Coast Guard

Solution

SBPL theorized that a centralized boat pool concept for the OTH could achieve significant cost avoidance and increase reliability:

What do I mean by Centralized Cutter Boat Pool?- The CG desires the ability to increase readiness and lower wasted costs through centrally managing the OTH fleet. This can be done by pooling the boats in one location on each coast- essentially all boats are returned to a centralized contractor facility when not being utilized for training or operations in the field. When a cutter returns to home port, the contractor will be notified of a pending pick-up. The boats will be picked up and returned to the Contractor’s facility. The Contractor then is required to inspect, maintain, repair, and store the boat in preparation for its next deployment. This management strategy allows the CG to ensure that standard and consistent maintenance is being properly performed on every hull allowing us to address the concerns just reviewed and better utilize the OTH fleet.

Because each boat is being better utilized, the CG will be able to reduce the fleet size and ensure boats are minimally idle. With standard and consistent maintenance the CG can reduce the amount of unscheduled maintenance by more than 50%, significantly decreasing lifecycle costs and increasing boat reliability. Additionally, the Contractor facility will always have a ready for issue boat available if required for an emergency casualty. The boats will also be better utilized as they will be rotated and no one boat will be idle for an excessive amount of time.

The objective of this Centralized Cutter Boat Pool (CCBP) strategy will be to decrease the number of active CB-OTH MKIIIs the Coast Guard requires while simultaneously increasing the number of hours each boat in the pool is available for deployable operations in addition to increasing the reliability of each asset. Under this CCBP program, while boats are assigned the contractor’s facility, they will undergo inspection, repair, programmed depot maintenance and covered storage.

United States Coast Guard

Roles

This Pool will be under the administrative control of the CG who will manage cutter boat requirement schedules including arrival and delivery dates. The Coast Guard will also provide GFM, Standardized maintenance cards, inspection and operational testing requirements and priority determinations. (more?)

United States Coast Guard

Pilot

The Prototype is planned to start in the first quarter of FY12 with a localized group of WMECs. These MECs include: DEPENDABLE, VIGOROUS, BEAR, FORWARD, HARRIET LANE, LEGARE, NORTHLAND, TAMPA. In preparation for this prototype there are several components that are required:

The first six months of this contract will be a pilot program covering 14 CB-OTH MK IIIs located in Cape May, NJ (2 boats) and Portsmouth, VA (6 boats) and 6 spare boats in addition to 2 spare CB-OTH MKIIs for a total of 16 boats. Depending on the success of the 6-month pilot period, it is anticipated that the number of boats will start to increase incrementally. The pace at which the number of boats will be increased has yet to be determined and will be provided to the Contractor when it is available. The Contractor should expect an average of 7 boats in storage/maintenance at any time. If the pilot proves successful, the option years will expand the scope to include all East Coast CB-OTH MKIIIs (31) and spare CB-OTH MKIIs (2) and West Coast CB-OTH MKIIIs (14) and spare CB-OTH MKIIs (3). The actual number of boats may vary slightly throughout the contract period.

The success of this program will be hinged in part on our contracted support for boat Transportation, Storage, Maintenance & Repair.

The pilot phase will require constant CG monitoring and evaluation against the success criteria and implementation of any required modification to the contract or CG process.

The next phase of implementation will be to start up the West Coast. We will then expand to include remote locations on the East Coast to ensure all potential transportation problems are corrected. This graduated implementation method will allow us to continue implementing the program until all major cutter, with the exception of those in AK and HI (MUNRO, JARVIS, RUSH) and enrolled in a manner that reduces the oversight of any potential pitfalls.

United States Coast Guard

Questions?