The lightweight torpedo that’s a profound success
The story behind the successful, on-time development of Saab’s Lightweight Torpedo is one of 团队合作, 参与和信任, 哪个项目的组织和技术本身一样具有创新性. Jörgen Thörnström and David Rönnberg explain more.
星际网赌导航的新 轻型鱼雷(SLWT), is a vital project for both Saab and its customers, in terms of investment and technological development. But it’s also been a transformative project for Saab’s internal processes.
The seeds of the project were sown in 2015. 当前一代鱼雷, 鱼雷45, has been in service since the mid-1990s, with a gradual series of updates. 然而, as European regional threats grow, 随着技术复杂性的增加和集成平台数量的增加, there’s been a clear need for a brand-new torpedo system. Enter the SLWT, which the Swedish Navy refers to as Torpedo 47.
为什么需要这种新型鱼雷
“目前的轻型鱼雷已经为我们的客户服务了很多年, but as we began to foresee difficulties maintaining the system, the question was: ‘How long can it last?’,Jörgen Thörnström说, originally the Product Manager for SLWT’s production, 但现在是星际网赌导航动力业务领域Linköping和Motala工厂的生产主管. 他将在未来五年内监督鱼雷的批量生产.
“SLWT对客户(目前是瑞典和芬兰海军)和我们公司都是必要的,大卫Rönnberg补充道, 谁是生产项目办公室的负责人，谁是项目指导小组的成员.
“我们需要对技术变革和新的客户需求做出反应..."
“我们需要对技术变革和新的客户需求做出反应, 但我们也需要保持星际网赌导航的技能基础，因为从事鱼雷45的专家正在变老，甚至开始退休. 你可以说，新型鱼雷对客户和星际网赌导航来说是双赢的，”他说.
Key features of the new torpedo
Rönnberg补充说，在发展新的星际网赌导航轻型鱼雷的主要挑战是想出一个鱼雷，是适合斯德哥尔摩群岛和波罗的海的水域, 哪里的深度相对较浅，水声学方面具有挑战性. 另一个重要的考虑是需要使鱼雷成为一种通用的和适用于不同平台的武器, 比如水面舰艇, 直升机和潜艇.
“新的SLWT拥有最先进的推进系统和新的能源系统，这意味着它可以无声地在水中行驶, making it much harder to detect,Jörgen Thörnström说. “It also has a much better homing system for target seeking. Overall, it’s a major step forward in torpedo development.”
Success factors of SLWT project management
For Saab, it’s not only the product which is innovative. The way this project has been managed, Jörgen和他的项目管理同事Stefan Melin采用了更综合的方法, has also been a real breakthrough. 成功的主要因素之一是从一开始就有跨职能的参与.
“In previous projects we have often followed processes one after the other, but in this project we were all working together from day one, often with daily and sometimes twice-daily project meetings,大卫Rönnberg说.
Well over 100 people are or have been, working on the SLWT project - designers, 系统工程师, 电子设计师, 机械设计师, 质量工程师, 生产工程师, 运营商, hydro-acoustic专家, 采购代理, 后勤支持和项目领导:通过整合这些功能，星际网赌导航可以采取更联合的方式, saving time later in the project.
“我们从一开始就涉及到生产和综合物流支持功能方面, during the design concept phase. 我们进行了一项研究，并在现场和客户的工作组中花费了大量时间, discussing the equipment they use today and how they use it, as well as what changes they wanted to have,Jörgen Thörnström说.
“因此，从这个过程中，我们对他们如何使用这些设备有了很多见解，并对我们必须改进的新鱼雷有了新的想法. That was very good to have so early in the process,” he says.
这种诊断性和指令性方法的一个副产品是，它确实促进了与瑞典和芬兰客户的关系.
“在整个项目中，客户和我们都非常透明..."
“It’s a question of trust,Rönnberg说. “在整个项目中，客户和我们都非常透明, about what’s good and what’s not working so well. Not all customers want to have that level of openness but this was very good.”
Teamwork, engagement, trust and…a lot of fun!
With successful prototyping of the different phases of the project, that showed the customers that Saab backed up its talk with action, even the pandemic couldn’t put the team off its timetable. Serial production of the SLWT has now begun, as well as deliveries to the Swedish Navy.
For both David Rönnberg and Jörgen Thörnström, 团队合作, 参与和信任 have been cornerstones of this project. 但是，Rönnberg补充说，这个成功故事的另一个因素也至关重要:乐趣!
“Seen from the steering group side, 在我看来，每个人都很享受整个过程，与客户的关系也很好, which makes meetings with them much more fun too,Rönnberg说.
“在这个项目中，我们与客户，特别是瑞典客户的距离更近了. And that feeling is sp读ing to other projects as well. 在水下业务领域，我们现在比以前更接近客户.”