Photo: The SEA1770 Phase 1 project provides for the procurement of a Defence Rapid Environment Assessment for the ADF. Photo courtesy Australian Department of Defence.
Systematiq’s team seamlessly integrates to deliver engineering capabilities
Leidos Australia is a trusted partner to the Australian Government, providing solutions to challenges in government, Defence, intelligence, border protection and health markets. With 20 years of local experience, Leidos continues to deliver solutions that help secure Australia.
As a client for the past three years, Systematiq has been able to foster a long-lasting relationship with Leidos Australia through the successful delivery of several ILS and Systems Engineering contracts.
Their recent development of system baseline and analysis papers to support the Phase 1 Survey Craft System project under SEA1770 Ph 1, saw Leidos Australia call upon Systematiq’s Integrated Logistics Support (ILS), Engineering and Systems Engineering (SE) capabilities to meet deliverables, part of the FCA/PCA milestone.
The SEA1770 Phase 1 project is aimed at providing the procurement of a Defence Survey Craft System (SCS) for the ADF to enhance the direction, collection, processing and dissemination of environmental data that provides a comprehensive and thorough understanding of the physical maritime operating environment and its likely impact on military operations.
Specialised expertise to deliver complex projects
Systematiq mobilised a team of consultants to support Leidos Australia’s SEA1770 project team with the development of the vessel baseline and completion of several analysis papers supporting Verification and Validation activities. Systematiq played a pivotal role in the review, editing and delivery of these documents to the Commonwealth.
Systematiq’s Christian (Chris) Cyc and Barry Johnson worked on gathering OEM datasheets when there were no datasheets available. With the limited information, they constructed datasheets to assist in building the baseline of the survey craft.
The parts structure in Windchill (Leidos’ configuration management tool) was updated to reflect the current physical build state as well as provide links to the supporting data that had been generated.
Other supporting data such as type certificates, certificate of conformance and any user/installation manuals were also obtained and linked as part of the baseline’s configuration work done.
Use of ‘Agile’ to adapt to changes and deliver results
Barry Johnson reflected on the complexity and size of the project “The agile methodology utilised as part of this project, meant that rapid and frequent changes were to be made at every stage of development. For instance, there were a few failures encountered as part of the testing phase. To combat this, we had to adjust our deliverables based on the changes made to the design and align our approach in a way that allowed us to keep up with the changes and deliver results as per the clients’ expectations.”
Building trust and meeting expectations
Parallel to the baseline configuration work, Chris and Barry also worked on several analysis papers in support of the Verification and Validation activities as the project moved towards FCA/PCA. These analysis papers covered a range of requirements from road, sea and air transport through to power systems analysis.
Analysing technical data and verifying that data against a sub-set of requirements was a challenging piece of work. But the trust placed by the Leidos team in Systematiq allowed us to meet the expectations set.
“The team at Leidos really trusted us with the work we did. They were able to throw any work related to Validation of Requirement Analysis our way and know that it would be done to the highest of standards”, affirmed Chris.
The team at Systematiq were also involved with developing the format and content for the ABR fault finding chapter, further developing the document to a provisional standard and allowing it to be presented to the Commonwealth of Australia (CoA).
Systematiq had to ensure that the Technical Drawings prepared met the Defence specifications. All the analysis papers produced went through an internal review process (with Leidos) before being released to the CoA.
Chris reflected “There were only minor amendments that we were asked to make to our papers. Overall, all the papers were prepared to a high standard and in most cases, we were almost too thorough, to a point where we had to scale our analysis back.”
Jake O’Connell joined the Systematiq team on this project in the capacity of an ILS practitioner for a period of one month. He was involved in cross referencing the parts list as provided by the boat builder against what Leidos believed was on the vessel and highlighted the errors he came across. Jake also provided support to Chris and Barry with the development of datasheets as required.
Seamless integration for positive results
The right resources, at the right time, with seamless integration into Leidos’ project team saw Systematiq’s Systems Engineering and Integrated Logistics Support efforts lead to a successful completion of all required deliverables and assisted the project in moving towards delivery of the two vessels in Nov 2019.
Matthew Coy, Engineering Manager for SEA 1770 at Leidos, particularly appreciated Systematiq’s ability to adapt within the Leidos team, meet tight deadlines and deliver results.
“I wanted to pass on my thanks for the support you and the team at Systematiq provided to SEA1770. At a very short notice you were able to provide both ILS and Systems Engineering support to help ensure that we met our contracted milestones. I also really appreciate your flexibility to work both onsite and remotely which meant we could access a range of different people across Systematiq’s capabilities.
I look forward to working together again soon, as it has shown that it is easy for you and your team to seamlessly integrate into our team.”
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