EFFICIENCY AND LEAN
Asset efficiency for CP5
Strategic services director Ben Edwards discusses Network Rail’s approach to asset management.
A
better understanding of the rail network’s assets has been called for by ORR and the
TOCs, whose services are routinely affected by infrastructure failings. Network Rail has made a start on collecting comprehensive, up-to-date information, leading to improved planning and proactive maintenance across the railway.
Ben Edwards, strategic services director of asset management at Network Rail, “lifted the lid” on the company’s asset management plans at the Future of Rail conference on 5 December.
“Our purpose is achieving standard value – and a key way of doing that is through good asset management,” he said. Edwards said he was “very proud” of the asset policies they had developed – but said that now they must be delivered.
From planning to practice
The national operating strategy is going to be “a significant change” for the network, helping Network Rail to take 30% of its operating costs out through CP5, partly by centralising control in rail operating centres. Edwards called it “a potential step-change in utilising capacity and driving forward the network”.
“We need to then build on that plan; to determine the most efficient way to deliver our work,” he said.
This includes developing a better understanding of the asset base, with information on the number, location and performance of assets, as well as how they relate to route punctuality and how they degrade over time. A “suite of options” was then created, and assessed against the targets Network Rail is required to meet.
These whole life cost models have “really moved us forwards”, Edwards said, allowing Network Rail to demonstrate which of the intervention options is the best solution. Investment can then be prioritised on specific assets.
Bottom-up Options are subject to three tests; robustness,
92 | rail technology magazine Dec/Jan 14
long-term impact, and cost, to ensure the policies achieve what the company is being asked to deliver, in a way which is sustainable and efficient.
Edwards described “an enormous amount of bottom- up planning” to
turn these plans into detailed delivery.
“We’re probably in a much more advanced stage than we’ve ever been at this point in a control period cycle.”
Building collaborative commercial agreements with the supply chain will be “a key way to drive down costs, increase innovation and ultimately deliver in a better way going forwards”.
BS 11000 accreditation shows “how much of a move we’ve taken away from conventional competitive tendering; we’re looking to have increasing alliances and our contractual arrangements are likely to be in alliance form in CP5,” Edwards said. You can read more about this on page 46.
Asset efficiency
Better asset information will underpin much of the efficiency challenge set for the next control period, he added.
The Offering Rail Better Information Systems programme (ORBIS) focuses on the number, condition and location of assets, providing real-time information
on how assets are
performing and allowing Network Rail to make operational decisions about how trains are scheduled throughout the network.
Handheld devices have also been rolled out to staff in the field, meaning they can access data wherever they are. This has led to “all sorts of quick wins”, Edwards explained, with the work being built on with a range of applications using
GPS technology to record coordinates and to collate different bits of asset information for track workers to access.
“You can get trend data so it’s very easy to see if the interventions that you’re planning are actually working, and you can test how quickly they degrade so you can intervene in location.
the appropriate time and
“That’s in depots now, so those initiatives will bring £280m of benefits across maintenance and renewals – a very significant improvement.”
Edwards concluded: “[In 2014] we’re going to be doing a lot of work on developing photos from the workforce
apps to provide with much better
information when they’re on the track; something much closer to Google Street View than what we have today.”
Ben Edwards leads Network Rail’s
development of asset policy, whole life cost models and assurance of asset management activities. He is also responsible for the over-arching asset management improvement programme within Network Rail, which is one of ten key strategic themes the business.
within Ben Edwards
www.networkrail.co.uk FOR MORE INFORMATION
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