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On Tuesday 28 June, the Netherlands Industries for Defence and Security (NIDV) held an Integrated Logistic Support (ILS) seminar for member companies. The aim was to discuss the key steps forward in the Dutch Ministry of Defence’s implementation of the so-called ASD S-series specifications, the common international denominator for all ILS-specifications. Hosted by Damen in Gorinchem, the seminar programme included presentations from DMO (Defence Materiel Organisation), DMI (Dutch Naval Maintenance and Sustainment Agency) as well as from NIDV member companies which have already started implementation of the ASD S-series or are interested in implementing them. The well-organised seminar was attended by more than 80 people.
“This seminar was one event in a long process of industrial cooperation that goes back decades,” says Damen Naval Senior ILS Specialist Desmond Kramer. “The focus was on how the new S-series specifications will deliver ILS services in a standardised way.” The ASD S-series is clearly significant: it is being implemented within most NATO countries.
Desmond Kramer from Damen Naval (second from left), amid other seminar attendees. (From left) Pieter van Breugel (Verebus), Paul de Haan (Netherlands Ministry of Defence), Maarten Lutje Schipholt and Ron Nulkes (both NIDV).
ILS is a methodology of the broad range of services that a supplier provides a client which they need for the operational lifecycle of a ship. ILS also improves the design to achieve a higher availability and a better maintainability. “ILS is the support system that enables operational capability. It includes all the ILS products like documentation, maintenance plans, training, spare parts and special tools and test equipment,” he explains. “ILS products combined with a redundant and maintainable design installed with high quality equipment provides the client exactly what they need: a ship with high availability, high operability, and low lifecycle costs.”
Desmond points to the large number of broken-down Russian tanks during the opening stages of the Ukraine war to illustrate the consequences of a military not having an effective ILS strategy. “This was a good example of what happens when there is no resupply, no maintenance, and where the asset is not designed for the operational conditions.” Turning the attention back to ships, the customer may have a vessel with a lot of capabilities, but without good support, that high value vessel will not be operational.
"ILS is the support system that enables operational capability. It includes all the ILS products like documentation, maintenance plans, training, spare parts and special tools and test equipment." Desmond Kramer
According to Desmond, implementing standardised ILS services is of great advantage to the end-client. Using the example of documentation, he says: “The number of suppliers working on a naval vessel can be up to 150. Instead of the client getting information from its suppliers in different formats, with different styles and different definitions, it is now going to be uniform.” The ASD S-series breaks ILS into its modular and standardised parts, making it easier to compile all the data in the same format. For instance, S1000D relates to documentation, S2000M is for material maintenance, S6000T is for training, and so on.
It is fair to say that Damen is handling the implementation of the ASD S-series with the efficiency of a world-class shipbuilder. “In our role as systems integrator, we want to collect data from all our subcontractors. All that different information is linked with each other and ‘searchable’ from one source. We compile an ILS database that we deliver as one uniform product to our clients; the user will be able to dive deeper to get more and more detailed information in an interactive publication with a lot of links and references, just like the Internet.”
ILS is a methodology of the broad range of services that a supplier provides a client which they need for the operational lifecycle of a ship.
Although S-series specifications have the potential to be huge and complex in describing all ILS products, they can be ‘slimmed down’ to a more manageable scope if required. Desmond explains: “The complete specifications should be tailored to a practical specification that is less huge, less complex, and therefore less expensive. We do this tailoring of the specifications in the Netherlands with a few key suppliers like Thales, RH Marine, and Heinen & Hopman together with the Netherlands Ministry of Defence.”
The Combat Support Ship is the first time that Damen Naval has been contracted to deliver documentation according to S1000D and therefore, this will have a relatively small scope. The rest of the documentation will be delivered in the traditional way by each supplier individually. “We will increase the scope with each project we work on in the coming years,” concludes Desmond.