An Roinn Cosanta Óglaigh na hÉireann Department of Defence Defence Forces
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Weapons Electrical Unit (WEU)WEU is responsible for the maintenance of communications, navigational, electrical and ordnance equipment on Naval Service vessels. The organisation of the Unit reflects these categories of equipment and is broken down into the following sections:
This Unit co-ordinates and controls the work of its component sections. The Unit also manages the use of external contractors as the need arises. The staff of WEU comprise of the permanently shore based staff and communications, electrical and ordnance technicians who are on two year rotation from sea service with the flotilla. The total strength of the Unit as at 2006 is outlined in Table 4.5 below.Table 4.5 Personnel Employed in WEU (2006)
The total salary costs for WEU for 2006 were €2,087,000. The costs remained consistent over the period of the Review again due to the fact that the staff numbers and ranks remained constant over the period. However, all salary costs cannot be attributable to the maintenance effort. Personnel from the unit are also involved in other Naval Service tasks such as regimental duties, military training and ceremonial duties. Analysis of daily and weekly attendance for staff in the Unit identified that 16% of WEUs staff time is not attributable to maintenance. This gives salary costs for WEU attributable to the maintenance effort of €1,753,080. In addition to staff costs, there has also been significant expenditure on equipment installed on board the flotilla by WEU. These costs are outlined in Figure 4.1 and Table 4.6 below. Figure 4.1 Expenditure on Equipment Installed by WEU 2003 to 2006 
Table 4.6 Expenditure on Equipment Installed by WEU 2003 to 2006
The increase in expenditure for 2005 relates to a number of upgrades to vessel equipment with a combined value in excess of €600,000, which is outlined below:
Although the useful life of these upgrades extends beyond the period of the Review their full costs were charged in the year they were incurred.
As outlined above WEU is broken into three functional areas each with responsibility for a specific area of maintenance, which is identified below. Communications Technical Section - The Communications Technical Section provides maintenance service for all Naval Service communications and navigational equipment. Electrical/Electronic Section - The Electrical/Electronic section provides a maintenance service for all power generation and ship borne electrical equipment. Ordnance Section - The Ordnance Section provides a maintenance service for all small arms and ships’ weapon systems and an advisory/inspectorate function for weapons. WEU maintenance activities are based around the vessel patrol plan, with the majority of their work being conducted during the annual refits for each of the eight vessels. In preparation for annual refits, WEU identify maintenance work required to be completed by consulting equipment maintenance schedules and liasing with MMS and ships MEOs. Outside of refit periods, WEU conduct maintenance on the vessels while ships are alongside the Naval Base between patrols. In this period, WEU assist the ships crew with extra personnel, particular specialised trades, specialist equipment and specialist knowledge to reduce work backlogs, investigate and problem solve more complex failures and undertake UCM that may be beyond the ships’ crew capacity. WEU also provide advice for ships at sea in all matters relating to their competencies. If there is a requirement to conduct maintenance beyond the capability or capacity of WEU, external contractors are engaged and managed by WEU.
As with the flotilla there are no records kept on time spent on jobs completed by WEU personnel through the medium of job cards or other methods. This presents the same two difficulties as with the flotilla in determining the efficiency of the unit. Firstly, the productive effort of WEU staff cannot be disaggregated into discreet maintenance tasks and secondly costing is based on staff availability and not on the their actual time engaged in maintenance tasks. Specific efforts were made to benchmark maintenance work carried out by WEU Electric / Electronic section on power generators aboard ship, with standard times set by the manufacturer for major service routines. However, this was again found not to be possible due to the reasons outlined above and the difficulties in obtaining this data from the manufacturers. It has therefore not been possible to assess efficiency.
As with other units, it is anticipated that the implementation of the EAM module of MIF will allow for the capture of time spent on major service routines. In the interim, the Steering Committee recommend that the Naval Service should develop a refined job card system to be piloted in WEU, in order to align maintenance processes under one system. It is further recommended by the Steering Committee that major PPM routines are isolated and that standard times are introduced for each of these routines. Utilising manufacturers and other suitable comparative data can identify standard times for the major service routines. The Steering Committee recommends that the Naval Service critically review management of WEU staff resources to ensure maximum availability for maintenance tasks. The Steering Committee acknowledges that on occasion, operational requirements may supersede planning guidelines but believe that their technical skills and capabilities need to be primarily directed towards maintenance activities. Download 496.54 Kb. Share with your friends:
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