Rolling stock
work predominates, but the content of these events (inspection, adjustment and component replacement) will be updated and optimised on a continual basis by HRE as the maintainer. Such adjustments will be made as needed to accommodate known and emerging maintenance requirements for components and systems based on elapsed time, miles run or duty cycle as appropriate. This approach is underpinned by a policy of continuous improvement (Kaizen) that ensures trains are modified and upgraded on a continual basis over their complete lifecycle. This builds on the proactive maintenance regime and utilises techniques such as closed loop Failure Reporting, Analysis and Corrective Action (FRACAS) to ensure that technical casualties, equipment failures and defects are captured, analysed and trends recorded. This in turn enables corrective action to be planned in liaison with the Toc, and undertaken in a way that minimises operational impact. However, Kaizen does not rely solely on problem solving, and by embedding it as a key component in our business culture, all staff are able to suggest technical and process improvements that benefit safety, performance and efficiency. While mileage-based maintenance takes
into account each train’s wear and tear, the fact that it leads to a largely reactive environment means that the close-knit time-based approach to be implemented for IEP has the fundamental advantage of simplifying the maintenance planning process. By combining the pro-active time- based approach with condition monitoring, the benefits are clear: maintenance teams can optimise their medium to long-term planning while at the same time detecting and resolving issues before they affect service. This approach has been tried and tested
with clear and measurable benefits, and in continually improving form, will underpin maintenance of the IEP fleet.
time-based and mileage-based approaches to train maintenance. For the IEP Super Express Trains, a time-based regime, coupled with condition monitoring will be adopted. This approach to maintenance utilises regular inspections to proactively identify conditions that may lead to future faults. The aim is to deal with problems before they become service affecting, benefiting both maintenance efficiency and fleet availability.
Given the demanding performance requirements of the IEP contract, implementing this approach effectively will be critical to meeting the fleet’s high reliability targets on a sustainable basis. For the IEP fleet, the basis of the routine maintenance plan is a calendar- days-based sequence of inspections and interventional events at specified intervals within an overall 400 day cycle. Inspection
North Pole, Stoke Gifford, Swansea and Doncaster – refurbished and new depots for new era maintenance regimes As part of the IEP project, three new depots will be built in Stoke Gifford (Bristol), Swansea and Doncaster. In addition, work to completely refurbish the redundant Eurostar servicing facility at North Pole in West London and turn it into a state of the art IEP maintenance facility is now well under way. The programme is on schedule to be ready for delivery of the first IEP test train in early 2015. Based on our experience in developing the Ashford Train Maintenance Centre which supports the Class 395 fleet, all of these sites will be configured to enable efficient implementation of our through-life maintenance plan.
Russ Hargrave is head of Maintenance at Hitachi Rail Europe (HRE)
www.hitachirail-eu.com
July/August 2013 Page 61
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