Hutch,
I spoke with Ron this morning about
what we were going to do and what we were not going to do as part of ECP14 – CD3
Rebaselining. I thought it would be good to document what is not going to
be included in ECP14 and make sure everyone has a common
understanding:
- Changes in
Field Period Assembly. Viola has proposed changes
in the FP assembly schedule. The net impact is zero to first
order. Strykowsky has some concerns with what Viola has proposed and
does not have the time to resolve and incorporate in ECP14. These will
be addressed in September.
- Changes in
Final Assembly. I am concerned about
inconsistencies with the final assembly schedule and the Final Assembly
Plan. Again, the net impact appears to be nearly zero. These too
will be resolved in September.
- Finalizing the
MCWF delivery schedule and use of the prototype winding form as the first
production article. Strykowsky’s schedule is
currently based on the “worst case” assumption that we receive 6 Type Cs
followed by 6 Type Bs and 6 Type As. This is sub-optimal for performing
initial handling trials. Basically, the schedule allows no time for this
– a point of vulnerability. We need to be prepared to say that we can do
without 3-coil handling trials. This delivery schedule also pushes back
the start of field period assembly, forcing us to work on three in
parallel. Heitzenroeder is working with EIO to change the order of
delivery to allow time for 3-coil handling trials and begin field period
assembly earlier. This will also force any MCWF fabrication issues to
surface sooner – another benefit. One of the things we might be able to
offer up is for EIO to use the prototype as the first production
article. The key here is to scan the actual part and verify that a
finished part does indeed reside within the casting. That seems to be
the final hurdle before we can offer this as an option. The benefit to
EIO is that they would have one less casting to produce. The benefit to
us is that we would receive the first and last castings sooner. Again,
it does not look like we have time to resolve these technical and contractual
issues in time to incorporate into ECP14. We will have to go with the
existing MOU for ECP14. However, we should plan to resolve these issues
before signing the contract. Another September change – aka
ECP15.
Are these thoughts consistent with
your own?
Wayne