01.01.07
MRO Software, an IBM Company case study: Tube Lines
Transport investment
On 31 December 2002, Tube Lines assumed responsibility for the maintenance and upgrade of the entire infrastructure on the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines as part of the largest improvement programme the Tube has ever seen. Tube Lines has a 30 year public private partnership (PPP) contract with London Underground. The contract is output based, which means that Tube Lines is rewarded for good performance and penalised for poor performance.
Martyn Capes, Tube Lines’ asset systems technical manager, says, “Passenger safety is the primary objective on the railway. However, after years of underinvestment, Tube Lines needs to ensure that planned capital investment is used as effectively as possible. Excellent asset management is essential both to minimise passenger disruption and drive out inefficient, costly processes which have become endemic across the underground network.”
Asset management
When Tube Lines took over in 2003, information on assets was distributed across almost 500 disparate systems and 1500 Excel spreadsheets. As Capes explains, “Without excellent, up to date asset information, Tube Lines could not attain any understanding of trends in asset performance to drive the proactive maintenance strategies required to maximise performance and minimise passenger interruptions.”
Having undertaken a comprehensive market evaluation, the company opted for IBM’s Maximo asset management solution from MRO Software, an IBM Company, to manage its assets.
“Critically, it has open application programming interfaces (APIs) and interfaces with Oracle applications for its ERP solution, Documentum for document management and Primavera for project planning, enabling Tube Lines to create a comprehensive, asset based information resource,” Capes confirms.
Using Maximo, the company now records detailed information on its asset, including a complete history, asset condition inspection (ACI) and asset condition assessment (ACA). “Creating a single source of all asset information has provided unprecedented visibility of asset performance across the three lines managed by Tube Lines,” he says.
Specifically, Tube Lines utilises the Maximo mobile work manager solution to provide mobile access to asset information for 1,000 staff and is currently developing a geographical information system with GPS to achieve pinpoint accuracy of asset location.
Tube Lines is now better able to monitor the condition of each asset to make more informed decisions for maintenance and renewals. Integrating asset maintenance activity and equipment history in Maximo with financial and planning systems is helping the company meet its financial targets, plan for long range capital investments and improve the rail infrastructure.
Proactive strategy
With some 60% of assets actually above the ground and affected by the weather, the company has a constantly evolving set of asset management challenges. Utilising a range of devices from PDAs and tough books, Tube Lines has significantly streamlined maintenance processes. Furthermore, adding GPS to the mobile system will enable engineers to locate assets to within one metre, which has significantly reduced the duplicated reports of asset faults. Tube Lines is also currently implementing Maximo in its fault reporting centre, emergency response, transport and health & safety business.
Financial return
Streamlined processes have enabled Tube Lines to reduce its previous reliance on contract staff to carry out administrative roles. Recently, Tube Lines has insisted all its contractors use mobile Maximo and now has real time visibility of its complete asset portfolio for the first time. The improved asset performance has been well received by Tube Lines’ customer London Underground which receives daily, weekly and monthly reporting from Maximo. Indeed, Tube Lines is consistently achieving the quality of service demanded by London Underground to deliver excellent and safe passenger services.
“By implementing Maximo, Tube Lines has demonstrated that it is possible to deliver value in the transport industry. Whilst the priority is always passenger safety, the improved understanding of asset performance has enabled a proactive maintenance strategy that has delivered quantifiable financial benefits and a return on investment,” Capes concludes.
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