Leveraging Contracting Strategies with Private Shipyards for Increasing Naval Fleet Operational Availability

Abstract

A major rethink of NAVSEA's shipyard contracting strategy is required to support the critical need of improving our naval fleet availability. Operational Fleet material availability is reduced when various parts of the NAVSEA production system operate at cross-purposes. By increasing alignment between major players (i.e., NAVSEA and the private shipyards), major improvements in delivery performance, cost, and even throughput can be realized. Developing strategies and specific actions to do so is a rich field given the current state of the system. We take an analytical as well as evidence-based approach to propose strategies that can be successful given the peculiar conditions of ship repair and modernization.