ASSETS, INFRASTRUCTURE & INNOVATION
Enhancing innovation in the rail sector
Annette Gevaert is director of rail and transport at Achilles, the leading provider of supplier information management services. She has oversight of Link-up, the UK rail industry supplier registration and qualification service, which comprises 77% of SMEs and here offers suggestions on how the rail industry can further develop innovative working.
In
the recent Budget, George Osborne outlined his plans for the SBRI (Small
Business Research Initiative) scheme to incentivise innovation in British industry. Indeed, the UK rail sector currently offers huge opportunities for innovation but it remains prohibitively difficult for smaller businesses to place their innovative products and services in the hands of buyers.
However, it is very difficult to criticise the risk-averse mentality of those procuring new services and products. Multi-million pound corporations can be cautious when taking on a new product – especially if safety and proof
of performance are yet to be tested. It can be very difficult to strike the right balance between innovation, trust and reliability. As a result, there is evidence to suggest that suppliers are pitching products that are seen as easier to sell – even though they have more innovative products under the shelf. Suppliers may be innovating all the time, but these products are in danger of being left untapped. The question arises – how can SMEs prove the safety credentials of a new product?
Fortunately, there are several organisations designed specifically to enhance innovation in the rail sector and answer this problem. Enabling Innovation Team, the Rail Innovation Fund, Network Rail’s innovation platform and member organisations like the Rail Alliance are all encouraging SMEs to become more active in the rail sector. Achilles’ Link-up community is also playing a significant role in continuing to drive innovation in rail.
Achilles works hard to encourage buyers to understand that pre-qualification on Link-up should automatically begin to assuage doubts about reliability. Instantly, this mark of quality can reassure buyers and create a level playing field for even the smallest and newest of suppliers. When a significant barrier involves mitigating the risk of innovation, proving auditable standards is necessary for a chance of inclusion in any tender.
Advice to SME suppliers
• Understand the fears of buyers and use certification to assuage them • Network extensively
• Understand the supply chains that cultivate the rail industry – where are the opportunities and where is the demand for innovation? Those likely to have responsibility for tangible opportunities on the rail infrastructure may be constrained by their traditional risk aversion, which can limit innovation and the opportunities for smaller suppliers. • Take advice from organisations that support the promotion of innovations • Communicate with similar suppliers – understand the market
Derek Day is the operations director at Emico, an SME mechanical and electrical contracting firm focused on the rail sector. Emico are a member of the Link-up community and Day perfectly articulates our vision. “We would love people to say, ‘Well, even though you’re a smaller company, you have management systems and arrangements and standards of quality and safety that are industry-leading’.”
Pre-qualification should be paving the way for innovative products and services to take their rightful place at the forefront of rail infrastructure. If SMEs want to compete alongside the big players, they have to demonstrate the same commitment to health and safety through audits and the supply chain information processes with Link-up.
All suppliers have to be registered on Link-up to be considered for projects within the industry.
216 | rail technology magazine Apr/May 13 ADVERTISING FEATURE
And to become a member, they have to undergo a rigorous pre-qualification process. This is welcomed across the industry by suppliers.
Day epitomises this support for Link-up from SMEs, saying: “We aspire to be the best, so we absolutely want to demonstrate that we can comply with all of the requirements of all of the aspects of the industry that we are choosing to work in, and to discharge all of those responsibilities with a high degree of professionalism.”
However, it can be a struggle for smaller and relatively newly established companies with genuinely innovative products to ensure they are included in large tenders. Infrastructure managers know which suppliers and contractors they can rely on, which leads to a gravitation of the whole supply chain to that of a closed shop. Breaking through legacy providers is an enormous barrier for SMEs and one that is unfortunately still stifling innovation.
Day explained that this was one of the challenges Emico had to overcome. “The same people turn up to go through the same processes, and there has been, in the past, very little opportunity for smaller suppliers to get involved.”
The consequence of this is that viable suppliers can sometimes be precluded from tender processes which would have been enriched by their presence.
Ultimately, the process of promoting innovation within our culture must therefore begin with the procurer.
Infrastructure managers need to allow contractors the space and freedom to decide upon suppliers within their own projects, and the contractors must become more willing to trust external audits and see innovation as a mitigated, rather than overwhelming, risk. Every innovation is an opportunity for improvement, therefore the more willing the buying community is to embrace these innovations, the more positive strides will be made by the industry.
Annette Gevaert
www.achilles.com FOR MORE INFORMATION
© Alvey & Towers
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176 |
Page 177 |
Page 178 |
Page 179 |
Page 180 |
Page 181 |
Page 182 |
Page 183 |
Page 184 |
Page 185 |
Page 186 |
Page 187 |
Page 188 |
Page 189 |
Page 190 |
Page 191 |
Page 192 |
Page 193 |
Page 194 |
Page 195 |
Page 196 |
Page 197 |
Page 198 |
Page 199 |
Page 200 |
Page 201 |
Page 202 |
Page 203 |
Page 204 |
Page 205 |
Page 206 |
Page 207 |
Page 208 |
Page 209 |
Page 210 |
Page 211 |
Page 212 |
Page 213 |
Page 214 |
Page 215 |
Page 216 |
Page 217 |
Page 218 |
Page 219 |
Page 220 |
Page 221 |
Page 222 |
Page 223 |
Page 224 |
Page 225 |
Page 226 |
Page 227 |
Page 228 |
Page 229 |
Page 230 |
Page 231 |
Page 232 |
Page 233 |
Page 234 |
Page 235 |
Page 236 |
Page 237 |
Page 238 |
Page 239 |
Page 240 |
Page 241 |
Page 242 |
Page 243 |
Page 244