Thistle Design Awarded 12 Year Support Contract

A long term contract to repair and maintain Encoders and Sensors in the UK MOD Battle Group Thermal Imaging (BGTI) Programme was awarded to Thistle Design in December 2006 by Thales UK Ltd.

The contract will run until the end of 2018 and involves ensuring fast turnaround times for units returned from the field. The contract will also involve obsolescence monitoring, strategic stock holding and maintenance and calibration of dedicated test equipment.

The Thales Through Life Support (TLS) contract is of twelve years duration and is the longest ever awarded to Thistle Design. It reflects the mutual trust and confidence in which the company is regarded as an integral part of the Thales supply chain.

Throughout 2006 Gordon Stewart of Thistle Design worked in conjunction with Daryl O’Keefe of Thales and Mark Lainton of SBAC to analyse the BGTI encoder repair cycle using lean techniques. This involved looking at every aspect of the operation from administration, engineering, rework and testing through to packing and despatch. The resulting improvements in performance have been incorporated into the new contract as targets for defect investigation and turnaround times.

To ensure that these times can be maintained throughout the contract life, a system of monitoring obsolescence at component level has been put in place and an agreed investment in strategic stock has been made.

The dedicated assembly and test facilities necessary to support the repair work will be maintained and calibrated throughout the next twelve years as part of the contract. This includes automatic test equipment for checking the encoder canbus outputs plus environmental chambers and random vibration facilities to enable environmental stress screening of components, sub assemblies and finished encoders.