We were tasked with forecasting the final completion cost of the two Queen Elizabeth Carrier (QEC) Aircraft Carriers using EVM, risk reviews, SRA, CRA and technical data.
Situation
The QEC contract was a TCIF construct, and a significant delta existed between the uplift to contract price that the ACA proposed and the DE&S view of what was fair and reasonable.
Task
This work was commissioned by CAAS, working on behalf of DG Resources and the Ships Acquisition Team, to support the contract negotiations with the Aircraft Carrier Alliance (ACA) during the QEC re-baseline contract negotiations. The project was over 60% through its forecast plan, having already cost more than £3.5 billion at that point.
Action
We joined a team of experienced cost engineers to augment the ship build, project management and technical costing experience. A key element of the task was to develop a thorough understanding of the remaining production, commissioning and trials requirements, the programme production progress, the future schedule and the technical allowances and risk contingencies being proposed by the ACA to facilitate informed debate about whether these elements were set at the right level.
Results
Our team was commended by CDM and DG Res for providing the negotiating evidence and levers to save significant money (over £100M) during these negotiations. A large proportion of the savings were made in the risk contingency debate where we played a major role in defining both an acceptable risk contingency process and a level of risk quantification that was commensurate with this stage of the programme.
