The Nimrod Review - Official Documents

The Nimrod Review
13.23
De-layering
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The reality can look like Figure 13.2 (below).
GOOD GOVERNANCE
SAFETY/AIRWORTHINESS
Projects/IPTS
Figure 13.2: Orthogonal values in practice
ENGINEERING BEST PRACTICE
QUALITY ASSURANCE
13.24 The process of devolution or ‘federation’ of responsibility to IPTs and IPTLs also involved ‘de-layering’, i.e.
the removal of intermediate layers of management and oversight which had hitherto been provided by, e.g.,
DG Technical Services, which had provided assurance and auditing functions, checks and balances. This was
to ‘empower’ IPTLs and make IPTs fully ‘self-standing’. Some 100 IPTs were created which, therefore, had
great freedom and independence to manage their platforms ‘end-to-end’, i.e. throughout the CADMID12 cycle, as they saw fit. But, IPTs were, to some extent, cast adrift by this process. The IPT model was heavily
dependent on the right calibre of people, capable of managing complex organisations and operating with
sufficient time, resources, guidance and oversight. As the Nimrod IPT proved, however, it was not always
easy to manage priorities correctly or balance functional values with project outputs. “Project Engineers were
lonely”, as one senior official put it to me.
Change was difficult
13.25
In my view, changing Defence Procurement and Logistics in the way envisaged by the SDR was always going
to be very difficult. There were a number of obvious reasons why. First, there are obvious and significant
differences between procuring for Industry and procuring for Defence. The former involves commercial
firms driven by profits and bonus schemes, with everyone normally coming from homogenous organisations
with similar aims and measures of success. The latter involves a variety of competing Service Personnel,
Civil Servants, and Industry, often with widely differing agendas, budgets, and motivation (public service
or profit). The former often involves incremental procurement. The latter involves long-term decisions and
risks concerning cutting-edge technology years hence. Second, the turnover of civil servants and military
personnel in post is often rapid, since the most able are moved around to broaden their experience leading to
a loss of continuity. Indeed, promotion in the military depends upon achieving a rapid succession and breadth
of two-year postings (McKinsey recommended that Directors and IPTLs should remain five years in post but
this did not always happen). Third, brokering smooth ‘civil partnerships’ between the two different cultures of
military and industry is often easier in the saying than the doing. Fourth, the military are rightly, and naturally,
trained, focused and busy dealing with the day job, being part of a fighting force and meeting the day-to-day
challenges of military exigencies and demands.
12 Concept, Assessment, Demonstration, Management, In-Service and Disposal.