Good News, Stirling Prizes for Architecture, PM Professional Awards, Not So Good News, Sustainability, BREXIT, the World’s largest crane and more naps
REPORT
By Miles Shepherd
Executive Advisor & International Correspondent
Salisbury, England, UK
INTRODUCTION
The project world in UK continues to be dominated by political events. Despite the headlines, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is remains legally governed but judicial interventions threatens the nation’s political stability. This is a major event in UK history and a point I will return to shortly. Elsewhere in the PM world, some major projects are under threat but there is some cause for optimism.
GOOD NEWS
As reported last month, the UK ship building industry have been awaiting the announcement of the preferred bidder for the next tranche of frigates for the Royal Navy. The Government has duly announced that Babcock Team 31 has been selected by the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) as the preferred bidder to deliver its new warships. Led by Babcock, the Aerospace and Defence company, and in partnership with the Thales Group, the T31 general purpose frigate programme will provide the UK Government with a fleet of five ships, at an average production cost of £250 million per ship.
Image: Babcock International
Following a comprehensive competitive process, Arrowhead 140, a capable, adaptable and technology-enabled global frigate will be the UK Royal Navy’s newest class of warships, with the first ship scheduled for launch in 2023. At its height the programme will require a workforce of around 1250 highly-skilled roles in multiple locations throughout the UK, with around 150 new technical apprenticeships likely to be developed. The work is expected to support an additional 1250 roles within the wider UK supply chain. With Babcock’s Rosyth facility as the central integration site, the solution provides value for money and squarely supports the principles of the National Shipbuilding Strategy. It builds on the knowledge and expertise developed during the Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier modular build programme.
A key element of the Type31 programme is to supply a design with the potential to secure a range of export orders thereby supporting the UK economy and UK jobs. Recent successes in this domain include a major order from the Australian Navy to build a fleet of Type 26 frigates in yards in Australia in addition to the Canadian order for 15 vessels to be built under licence at yards in Nova Scotia demonstrates the effectiveness of the UK’s National Ship Building Strategy. The deal gives UK a second naval shipbuilder, thus ending BAE Systems monopoly on the construction of surface combat vessels.
Stirling Prize
This is not new as the announcement came in the high summer but it was crowded out by bad news! The Royal institution of British Architects (RIBA) has a major annual award that draws on regional competition to short list half a dozen top designs for consideration. This year, the award winner will be announced on 8 October and the short listed designs are:
More…
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How to cite this report: Shepherd, M. (2019). August 2019 UK Project Management Roundup, PM World Journal, Vol. VIII, Issue IX, October. Available online at https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/pmwj86-Oct2019-Shepherd-UK-project-management-roundup-report.pdf
About the Author
Miles Shepherd
Salisbury, UK
Miles Shepherd is an executive editorial advisor and international correspondent for PM World Journal in the United Kingdom. He is also managing director for MS Projects Ltd, a consulting company supporting various UK and overseas Government agencies, nuclear industry organisations and other businesses. Miles has over 30 years’ experience on a variety of projects in UK, Eastern Europe and Russia. His PM experience includes defence, major IT projects, decommissioning of nuclear reactors, nuclear security, rail and business projects for the UK Government and EU. Past Chair and Fellow of the Association for Project Management (APM), Miles is also past president and chair and a Fellow of the International Project Management Association (IPMA). He is currently a Director for PMI’s Global Accreditation Centre and is immediate past Chair of the ISO committee developing new international standards for Project Management and for Program/Portfolio Management. He was involved in setting up APM’s team developing guidelines for project management oversight and governance. Miles is based in Salisbury, England and can be contacted at miles.shepherd@msp-ltd.co.uk.
To view other works by Miles Shepherd, visit his author showcase in the PM World Library at http://pmworldlibrary.net/authors/miles-shepherd/.
