Swiftships’ Service Life Extension Program (SLEP) describes an extension or upgrade of assets of the US government, usually involving the U.S. military. Swiftships coordinates directly with the USG, the Program Office, Engineering departments, the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), and several other agencies to administer comprehensive task orders aimed at avoiding replacement costs and reducing vessel downtime.
Our custom SLEP effort enables our clients’ participants to provide adequate oversight, ensure effective inventory controls, and monitor stockpiles for shelf-life extension opportunities. The program also enables us to develop and implement more efficient stockpile replenishment plans for the future. The intended outcome of the SLEP is measurable cost avoidance returned to program participants and continued availability of potency-dated contingency stocks.
Our standard process is described as follows:
• In case dry-docking is required, Swiftships prepares and implements the dry-docking plan in accordance with the ship’s construction drawings
• Use of U.S. Navy-approved techniques to determine deficiencies
• Testing all mechanical systems, including engines, generators, auditing engine hours records
• Testing oil samples
• Testing electrical systems
• Hull and superstructure inspections, strength assessment including measurement of plate thickness and load testing of lifting and mooring points
• Documentation and photography to record observed deficiencies
• Assessment report and scope-of-work definition
• Agreement on Scope of Work
• Phasing and scheduling
• Detailed budgeting
• Material and Equipment List
• Selection of Supplies, vendors, and sub-contractors
• Logistics plan
• Project management procedures and reporting routines
• Quality management plan
• Agreement on testing and trial criteria
• Swiftships develops its major overhaul repair work packages according to the Docking Selected Restricted Availability (DSRA) regulation
• Swiftships manages, administers, documents, and reports completion of work packages
• Reporting any unplanned/unforeseen repairs required. Swiftships tracks the platform’s material condition during overhaul and identifies any work needed outside of the approved work package. In addition, Swiftships conducts diagnostic efforts to determine the extent of damage, and generates a preliminary list of required parts and tools, prior to emergent work repair
• Swiftships corrects all platform deficiencies to restore ships to the original state condition, prior to equipment malfunction or failure
• All tasks such as including identifying, planning, scheduling, managing, and documenting work repair, are completed in accordance with applicable systems and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) procedures
• Harbor testing and trials
• Under-way (sea) trials
• Post-sea trials
• Test result reporting, and any deficiencies to be corrected. And test repeated, in case required
• Customer’s acceptance
Swiftships executed a major program for the U.S. Army on SLEP for LCU 2000 vessels. The scope included:
As the initial effort, Swiftships Systems Engineering and Production team provided amplifying information about the continued use of the US Army’s LCU 2000 vessels. We completed Service Life Extension Assessment (SLEA) and determined the risks and the life cycle costs of continuing the product or service versus the cost of a replacement system. The program involved three (3) LCU’s, each with different design variations.
Our SLEP program concluded the following:
Swiftships System Engineers and Logisticians proactive approach to predict, led to tremendous savings and minimum vessels downtime. Our proven SLEP methodology allowed to prevent system failures before the operations and support costs rise above acceptable limits.
In addition, our PMO team tracked critical factors during the entire SLEP effort:
