“Whatever the potential technical performance of our equipment, if it does not function in the hands of the User when it is required to do so then it is virtually useless”.

Capability then relies not only on technical performance, but also on availability of functioning equipment.  Confidence of availability is achieved through a combination of designing the equipment to be both reliable and easily maintainable in the operating environment, and by designing, procuring and fielding a support system and training solution that is both efficient and effective.  This activity is termed Supportability Engineering.
We at McCarten Flower bring to bear many years of experience as Users and Maintainers of Defence equipment, coupled with expert knowledge of Integrated Logistics Support (ILS), Logistic Support Analysis (LSA) and Reliability and Maintainability (R&M), to deliver Supportability Engineering solutions to Customers and Suppliers in the Defence Acquisition environment.

Our team is professionally qualified and has extensive acquisition experience, combining proven performance in both the MOD ILS Manager Customer role and as commercial suppliers of Supportability Engineering services.  Our access to key Defence Equipment and Support (DES) stakeholders and our current input and involvement in Defence Acquisition, both in delivery of Urgent Operational Requirements (UOR) and Core Equipment Programmes, ensures we continue to be at the forefront of our profession.

McCarten Flower capabilities include:
UOR Sustainability Management - Proven performance in taking ownership of UOR Sustainability from concept.  Influencing the programme for sustainability, scoping, costing, designing, developing, managing and delivering sustainability to Operations.

Strategic Management - Change management, policy formulation, Cluster and Programme development, Process Capability Management (PCM) and Capability Maturity Models, to benchmark, assure and optimise value stream output.

Operational Management - The formulation and management of Customer and Supplier Supportability Engineering plans and processes to deliver Reliable, Maintainable and Supportable Capability.  Management and delivery of Training Needs Analysis (TNA) based training solutions, Contract monitoring, guidance, support and Assurance.  Bid "Red Team" assessment.

Tactical Delivery - Requirement engineering, Support Solutions Envelope (SSE), R&M input to TRL / SIL assessment, Assurance, deliverable assessment, training delivery and much more.

Figure 1 below captures McCarten Flower support at every stage of the acquisition cycle.