Major equipment rollout creates challenge

When Tait Communications was awarded a contract to supply over 9000 digital radios for the Country Fire Authority (CFA) fleet and provide a 10-year support services agreement, it required an implementation partner to manage the installation of radio equipment into thousands of vehicles and appliances. Dan Quagliani from AA Radio describes the rollout of the CFA Radio Replacement Project.

The CFA is one of the largest volunteer-based emergency management organisations in the world and has been fighting fires and protecting Victorian communities since its inception in 1945.

With over 57,000 members, predominantly volunteers, spread throughout 1220 brigades across a land mass equivalent in area to the UK, the installation project was a challenging and complex task.

More than 17 years had elapsed since the installation of the original incumbent radio system and equipment. In this time, the technology in both radio equipment and vehicles had changed significantly. This required adjustments to the technical scope of works and requirements.

From the outset, AA Radio realised that apart from the sheer size and scale of the task, there were other major factors that would need to be addressed. While CFA is largely a volunteer organisation, its sphere of operations would range from major urban areas through to a single shed hundreds of kilometres from the city.

Many considerations were taken into account when planning the state-wide project, such as the wide variety of firefighting appliances to be installed, over 57 different vehicle types, and variations in manufacturer and age of those vehicles. Over 9000 customised P25 digital portable and mobile radios and TB9100 base stations needed to be implemented to upgrade CFA's incident-management network.

Local seasonal factors such as crop sowing in Northern Victoria and holiday periods at coastal locations would affect the coordination of the installation teams. The CFA volunteers’ availability to access appliances and fire stations were also affected by seasonal factors.

Personal limitations of CFA members, such as work or family commitments, also meant that vehicle access would not always be possible and that flexible working hours may be required to accommodate these circumstances. A close coordination between project teams to strike a balance for all members’ training requirements was needed.

“With 57,000 members to train, 1220 fire brigades to be visited, 5000 portable radios to be delivered and 4000 mobile radios to be installed across 57 different types of vehicles, I think the Tait Communications and AA Radio rollout has been an extraordinary success,” said Doug Booth, CFA’s project director.

The fire danger period represented a significant risk to installations; this required careful planning to minimise the likelihood of appliances being unavailable during a fire call-out. Brigades could also only tolerate a certain percentage of appliances being unavailable at any one time due to the installation works.

In addition to these challenges, all parties faced additional, unforeseen issues, which would emerge as the project began.

Many CFA members who had experienced the original rollout had moved on and been replaced with new members. Coordinating up-to-date CFA member contacts and access to vehicles was an ongoing precursor to all rolling installation schedules.

Early in the project, some hardware and software enhancements were added to the product and this put pressure on the committed schedules, resourcing and travel plans of the installation crews.

One of AA Radio’s first priority tasks was the establishment of a formal project management structure to continually engage with the Tait project team. This ensured there was regular communication with the Tait and CFA teams so that critical issues were addressed without delay. This structure was essential to maintain project control, but had to be flexible to accommodate unforeseen changes to both scope and operations.

A key outcome of this structure was the ability to interact directly with CFA on operational matters while referring other issues to Tait for resolution. This required a great deal of trust and interaction from all parties and was a major factor in the success of the project.

Another key priority was the establishment of a dedicated project office and warehouse/staging area, where equipment from Tait could be built into field kits for loading into the installation team vehicles in accordance with the scheduled week of works. Returning crews would unload old equipment, collect relevant documentation, attend debriefs with project staff and reload equipment for the next week’s mobilisation.

A team of in-house dedicated resources supported the field crews with the objective of scheduling work, arranging accommodation,  supplying consumable material supplies and keeping them up to the run rate required. Staff were recruited for the project and trained initially at AA Radio under the supervision of workshop personnel before testing and accreditation at CFA. This meant every two-person team had a CFA-accredited installer at any location for sign-off on the completed installation. Quality assurance was conducted by AA Radio inspections and in conjunction with the overall Tait quality assurance inspection regime.

Despite the many operational and physical challenges such as extreme weather, road closures and floods, the final installation was conducted at the Stawell brigade on 14 June 2012 - on time and on budget.

Tait Communications program manager Terry Robinson stated, “We were very pleased with the commitment, professionalism and quality of the work performed by AA Radio. Their ability to communicate effectively and work closely with our project team was a major factor in the success of the project. Despite the many challenges that presented themselves, they overcame them and met the delivery and quality goals needed. Their achievement in a large and complex undertaking such as this was outstanding.”

Five installation teams travelled in excess of 240,000 km over 17 months to install almost 4000 transceivers, 2800 in-vehicle chargers, program and supply 5000 portables into more than 3600 vehicles and specialised appliances.

Booth said, “Working to a tight timetable, [AA Radio] has demonstrated a strong commitment to meeting installation milestones while maintaining compliance with rigorous installation standards. It has accepted accountability for its work and has shown a willingness to work together constructively to resolve issues to deliver what has been a massive logistical undertaking. CFA has warmly recognised and affirms the key contribution made by AA Radio to the overall success of its radio replacement project.”