Through-Life Engineering Services: The NedTrain Case

Abstract

Investing in all operational management aspects is of great importance to the proper management and maintenance of capital assets. The primary maintenance processes are to be up to the task and to have the organization of the production plants, statements of work, planning and work preparation well in order. Continuous improvement presupposes an atmosphere where presenting improvement proposals, reporting, and removing unsafe working conditions is encouraged as a matter of course. By conducting the technical management of trains in maintenance close to the workshop floor, staff members are able to improve on the performance of the trains. Correct and proper information and the related necessary information systems allow for the analysis of performance and the implementation of improvement measures wherever required. Over the past few years, NedTrain has implemented major improvements to the performance of rolling stock in the Netherlands. Plans to perform maintenance activities closer to the transportation process and more closely attuned to dynamic maintenance demand await implementation in the near future.

Understanding Maintenance Decisions: How to Support Acquisition of Capital Assets

“…The context of the case is a company that maintains passenger service rolling stock: NedTrain. van Dongen [48] gives insights about the maintenance strategy of NedTrain; Parada Puig et al [32] give more detail about its maintenance operations. This section is structured as follows.…”

“…It contains, for example, information on asset configuration, the maintenance program, technical KPIs, obsolescence management and technology refreshment plans. van Dongen [48] offers more detail. After (commissioning) fielding the new train series, the individual life cycle plan is coupled to the life cycle plan of the entire fleet.…”

“…Table 13.3 positions strategic decisions made at NedTrain in relation to the three most recent acquisition processes included in our case data. Van Dongen [48] gives details about these decisions. The table shows that the strategic decisions at NedTrain are independent of rolling stock acquisitions.…”

State of the art in Through-life Engineering Services

“…In the railway sector the most commonly cited application of TES is the maintenance of locomotives and rolling stock. Particular examples include the application of real time monitoring to enable dynamic maintenance scheduling at NedTrain [115], the use of robots in automated train maintenance beyond simple inspection [61] and the extension of the life of London underground trains in the most cost effective manner [85] [116]. From the railway system's perspective various papers citing the work to improve the performance monitoring and measurement systems by utilising data [86] as well as the development of a model to improve the data gathering for more effective initial spare part assortment decision making based on a case study at Netherlands Train [112], offer examples of the future opportunities and challenges.…”

“…The consideration and focus relative to data filters, computational and simulation models in support of TES design and application is well served within the literature and cover numerous aspects and applications. Nonaka et al [37] [146] [147] [146] remain significant contributors reporting on models in support of service and availability for use of machine tools whilst Toossi et al [86], van Dongen [115], Norris [85], Lingegard and Lindahl [117] offer models and the case for their application in the Rail Sectors of the UK, Sweden, and the Netherlands. Upon review it is observed that contributions relating to the generating of models within TES include the calculation of remaining useful life and MRO decisions [148] [149] [150], logistics [151], cost [67] [66] [108], obsolescence [152] [109] [153] and Inventory [151] [154] and all such contributions feature significantly.…”