Lead time in the nuclear industry: agap2 can help!
France is proclaiming its ambitions: with the planned construction of six new EPR2 reactors, the entire nuclear industry is facing new challenges. These challenges involve responsiveness and meeting deadlines. At a time when the issue of lead time is on everyone’s lips, agap2, a long-standing partner to stakeholders in the sector in France, is committed.
Lead time: a topical issue for the nuclear industry
In February 2022, the announcement of the construction of six new nuclear reactors (and an optional stage of eight more) marked an important moment for this strategic sector. While the figures and timetable for the programme have been fine-tuned over the course of the various Nuclear Policy Councils held by the French government, the strong signal sent by the political authorities to the stakeholders in the industry is that of 'industrial control’. This is particularly true of lead times: behind this notion lies the entire industry’s commitment to ensuring that plant designs are robust, that the various components of an EPR can be manufactured within the identified costs, without overlooking safety, which is essential in the nuclear world.
Bernard Fontana, Chairman and CEO of EDF, said in the spring: “We improve our efficiency by optimising actual working time, which we call the lead time.”
Nicolas Machtou, then Director of the new nuclear power programme, told the parliamentary committee: “The competitiveness of industrial programmes is very much based on the manufacturing time, called the lead time, in order to get things right first time and make savings in series production.” Those who now occupy very senior positions in the top management of EDF summed up this major challenge for the nuclear industry, still haunted by the spectre of Flamanville.
agap2, which has been working with industry leaders for fifteen years, has made “Lead Time” - the key word in this new economic climate - a priority in all its solutions.
agap2 and lead time: customised organisational support
For a stakeholder like agap2, a long-standing partner of companies such as EDF, Framatome, Orano, the CEA, newcleo and nuward, as well as prime contractors (Eiffage, Bouygues and Valiance) and all the equipment manufacturers in the sector (REEL, Valserve and Monteiro), lead time is an essential component. Whether it’s through our support solutions for the entire life cycle of a project, or through specific expertise (engineering, project management, supply chain, quality/safety), we mobilise our teams to manage complex projects, improve the reliability of nuclear facilities and provide training.
agap2 supports the industry at a number of levels, via a network of experts who can be deployed rapidly for one-off assignments, or to monitor long-term projects. In very practical terms, the specialists appointed by agap2 act on both structural and operational levers to accelerate the project, helping to meet deadlines and control costs.
In project management and the supply chain, it specialises in ‘contract management’, i.e. ensuring that legal clauses are in line with the timetable, process and budget for a construction project or work to bring facilities up to standard. This enables those placing orders to ensure that delivery times are met and costs controlled, particularly when a prime contractor or manufacturer has to work with a large number of subcontractors. As the holder of a framework contract on this issue with EDF, among others, agap2 has extensive feedback from the nuclear industry.
agap2 also responds to this large number of contacts by adapting the ‘extended enterprise’ concept.
Increasing the number of partnerships and really integrating suppliers and subcontractors into the projects, so that they work in harmony, is a real response to the challenge of efficiency that the industry set itself when the ‘performance pact’ was signed between the French government, EDF and the members of GIFEN for the construction of the first six EPR2s. This involves very specific elements in the design and manufacture of future nuclear power plants: simplifying specifications and working together with a supplier to ensure they implement the best technical solution means speeding up and optimising the supply of a site.
Engineering: an essential lever for lead time
As a company specialising in industrial support, agap2 provides engineering support to stakeholders in the nuclear industry at various stages of current projects.
It is through calculation, in particular, that agap2 contributes its expertise, both in the design phase and during performance monitoring.This cutting-edge task has been made easier by the introduction of tools for digitising engineering processes (model-based systems engineering, or MBSE), which make it possible, in particular, to bring a reactor’s architectural and energy designs into line with regulations and to facilitate interfaces between trades. Similarly, agap2 takes a very close interest in digital twins, a simulation technology that can be used to prepare for the eventualities of a worksite and start-up, and to adapt processes according to the results.
Over and above the lead time issue itself, agap2 promotes the diversity of expertise and its transfer. With long-term projects (the first six EPR2s are due to come on stream around 2037), plant life time extensions and innovative projects (SMRs, the ‘Downstream of the Future’ programme), the success of the industry depends on its ability to mobilise the right resources, at the right time and in the right place. To achieve this, the industry’s ability to recruit, train and pass on know-how to new generations and capitalise on the knowledge of current experts is crucial for the years to come.
