Naval Aircraft Repair Organisation (Hansard, 3 March 1992)

§ Mr. Archie Hamilton

The Naval Aircraft Repair Organisation will be established as a defence support agency of the Ministry of Defence on 1 April 1992. The NARO comprises a Royal Navy aircraft yard at Fleetlands, Gosport, and the Royal Navy aircraft workshops at Almondbank, Perth. Together, they employ some 12 RN personnel and 1,652 civilians, who will transfer to the agency. Also included within the agency is a subsidiary storage site at Wroughton near Swindon, manned by contractors' personnel with a small MOD presence. The full cost budget for the NARO for 1992–93 is assessed at £141 million.

The role of the NARO is to provide repair, modification, overhaul and storage services for the tri-service helicopter fleet, their engines and selected components and for marine gas turbine engines and their components. The high professional standards of the NARO will be maintained and agency status will provide the chief executive with new opportunities to improve the efficiency and value for money of his organisation. Captain David Symonds, Royal Navy has been appointed as the agency's chief executive. The corporate strategy of the NARO will be centred on the following two principal targets: To deliver the core programme of work to the required standards of quality and timeliness and to the customers' satisfaction. to increase the efficiency of the utilisation of its capacity, assets and facilities by maintaining the optimum level of throughput, and by reducing the unit production cost of core work by 7.5 per cent. over the next three years and by 21 per cent. over the following seven years.

The chief executive has been set the following strategic targets: Quantity—to complete 100 per cent. of the task as detailed in the DGA(N) schedule of identified repair work. Quality—to reduce by 2 per cent. the weighted number of allied quality assurance publication non-conformances in 1992–93. Timeliness—to complete more than 90 per cent. of contracts on time in 1992–93 and to increase this figure to over 95 per cent. by the end of 1994–95.

Cost—Based on the values at the time of launch: —reduce cost of the direct output units—standard hour—by 2.5 per cent. by the end of 1992–93. —reduce cost of the direct output units—standard hour—by 7.5 per cent. by the end of 1994–95. Efficiency—Improve the efficiency index—measured work content divided by measured time taken—from 59.5 per cent. in 1990–91 to 62 per cent. by the end of 1992–93 and to 65 per cent. by the end of 1994–95. Productivity—Improve productivity from the 1990–91 figure of 706.7 to an average of 720 direct output units per employee by the end of 1992–93 and 750 direct output units per employee by the end of 1994–95. Market Testing—To commence a five-year market testing programme in 1992–93 to the value of £2 million.