Best Practices: High Levels of Knowledge at Key Points Differentiate Commercial Shipbuilding from Navy Shipbuilding
Abstract
Cost growth is a prevalent problem in Navy shipbuilding programs, particularly for the first ships in new classes. In response to a mandate in the conference report accompanying the Defense Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2008, GAO undertook this review to accomplish the following: (1) identify key practices employed by leading commercial ship buyers and shipbuilders that ensure satisfactory cost, schedule, and ship performance; (2) determine the extent to which Navy shipbuilding programs employ these practices; and (3) evaluate how commercial and Navy business environments incentivize the use of best practices. To address these objectives, GAO visited leading commercial ship buyers and shipbuilders, reviewed its prior Navy work, and convened a panel of shipbuilding experts. GAO suggests Congress consider refining required reporting to include additional design stability metrics. GAO is also making recommendations to the Secretary of Defense aimed at improving shipbuilding programs by balancing requirements and resources early, retiring technical risk and stabilizing design at key points, moving to fixed-price contracts for lead ships, evaluating in-house management capability, and assessing if the desired fleet size sufficiently constrains the cost and technical content of new ships. The Department of Defense agreed with five recommendations and partially agreed with two. GAO believes all recommendations remain valid.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 01, 2009
- Accession Number
- ADA499729
Entities
People
- Brian Egger
- C. J. Madar
- Christopher R. Durbin
- Jason D Kelly
- Karen Zuckerstein
- Kelly Bradley
- Kristine Heuwinkel
- Paul L. Francis
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office