Andy Hurley & Richard Weeks
Andy Hurley & Richard Weeks - Dart Lifeboat
The RNLI Becomes "Leaner"
The RNLI relies almost entirely on voluntary contributions and it is vital that it provides value for money. A philosophy of “Lean Management” has been applied throughout the Institution, from lifeboat building and maintenance to the organisation of the teams at Poole and at the Divisional bases around the coast.
By reorganising the Divisions within the RNLI it has been possible to dedicate individual Divisional inspectors to specific groups of lifeboat stations. This will reduce their travelling time and allow the stations to become familiar with the one manager.
As part of this process the previous six RNLI Regions have been reduced to five and our enlarged Region is now headed by Andy Hurley. He joined the RNLI in 1999 and has worked his way up from being a Deputy Divisional Inspector in the North to a Training Divisional Inspector in the West before being appointed to this role.
His previous career was in the Merchant Navy, initially deep sea and then as captain of an inter-island ferry in the Shetlands. Under him are two Divisional Operating Managers. Richard Weeks is in charge of the English Channel Division which includes our station.
The RNLI constructs over 60% of its lifeboats and has its own purpose built manufacturing facility, the Inshore Lifeboat Centre, in East Cowes, Isle of Wight. This is where our lifeboat was built and is maintained.
In 2008 the Centre expanded to accommodate a new, lean, manufacturing assembly line to speed up production and maintenance, increase capacity and to make the whole operation more efficient. Inshore lifeboats were routinely serviced after a fixed interval but this has now been made variable and relates to the amount of time that the boat spends on the water training and on service.
As a result the servicing interval at our relatively busy station has been reduced and the lean process means that our own boat is away from the station for a shorter period.
The latest development in All Weather Lifeboat construction and maintenance is that a new centre of engineering excellence will be developed at the Headquarters of the RNLI at Poole. It will be built on land that the RNLI already owns and planning permission has just been granted.
There will be a steady production of six lifeboats a year. Firstly, they will build 50 plus of the new Shannon class to replace the older lifeboats, including Merseys and Tynes. Two of the first of the new Shannon class will be operating at Ilfracombe and Exmouth. When all the Shannons are in place it will bring the entire fleet capability up to 25 knots.
Secondly, they will build more Tamars and radically upgrade the Severn fleet such as the lifeboat at Torbay. The building is scheduled to begin this summer and be completed by next spring. The savings made by bringing construction in-house should have paid for the project within ten years.
First Published July 2013 By The Dart