330 



The JET Experience 



The main conditions for the success of JET have been first that management has been given the freedom to 

 manage, second that there has been no quota system either for staffing or for contracts, and third that the 

 Project Ifcam has held on firmly to the responsibility for design, development and construction. 

 Management has Ibc Freedom to Manage Despite the apparently complicated framework in which the Joint 

 Undertaking must operate, the Director has considerable freedom. The supervisory bodies have never tried 

 to manage the Project. 



from Quotas. JET is free of the principle of "juste retour" that bedevils some other international 

 projects. Contracts are awarded to the lowest technically acceptable offer. Tfenders are, however, judged on an 

 f.o.b. basis to ensure that there is no discrimination between firms for reasons of geography. The lowest tender 

 can be rejected, if considered by JET to pose unacceptable technical or commercial risks. The distribution 

 of JET contraas between countries is shown in Fig. 5. Staffing also is on the basis of suitability, not nationality 

 (see Fig. 6). 



Strength of the Project Team. The responsibility for design, development and constniaion has always rested 

 firmly with the Project Tfeam. Components are produced by industry according to JET's detailed specifica- 

 tions. Contractors thus remain in their own areas of competence, where they are closely supervised by JET 

 technical officers. Much of JEPs technical success has been due to these factors. 



Conclusions 



As an Experiment in Fusion Physics. AU systems so far commissioned have worked according to specification, 

 and the physics results to date have more than fulfilled expectations. 



As an Experiment in European Collaboration. The Project has successfully achieved a Community character, 

 both in its staffing and placing of contracts. It has also demonstrated that an international project can be 

 run at least as productively as a national project. 



As an Experiment in Project Organisation. As a model for future large projects, it is important that JET re- 

 mains a success in this respea. The outcome, however, will depend on the willingness of member organisations 

 to continue to support the aim that the Project should eventually vanish without aftermath. 



JET 

 June 1985 



