Page 30 - 360.revista de Alta Velocidad - Nº 5

Coca, Marcos

Raising the introduction of Connected Tools in a rail maintenance workshop would require
assessing how the new technology will bring value and will help to optimize the process together
with an estimation of the expected return, likewise identifying the adjustments or redesign
requirements in the maintenance process, staff training needs and logistics support to get the
tool fully operational whenever it is required by the maintainer.

The action plan derived from the integration strategy must be ambitious and shall consider all
the optimization possibilities offered by the new technology, but at the same time it should be
developed in continuous and small steps, without stopping.
It is common practice to develop Proofs of Concept in the early stages of that process to confirm
that the performance of the new devices is in line with expectations and the investment is
justified. They are usually small-scale tests intending to get closer to the current operating
conditions. But the outcome may not be conclusive or could be distorted if testing conditions
are not representative, or if the device is forced to integration into the existing process rather
than into a redesigned one.
3. The management of the new process will determine the outcome

Although the integration plans are bult in small steps, the strategy should be conceived over the
final management vision of processes and tools required in the maintenance activity, including
in-between synergies and the need for integrating platforms and data processing tools.

An example of this vision is found over the use of asset monitoring systems and the development
of Predictive Maintenance algorithms.

Scheduled preventive maintenance task are being progressively relieved by Condition Based
Maintenance (CBM), insofar as it has been possible to access to new reliable diagnostic
information for railway equipment. Currently technology allows going a step further, applying
Predictive Maintenance techniques in order to model and to predict the behavior of the system
till failure, and even applying Proactive Maintenance to detect and act in advance in the causes
that generate degradation performance of the component or equipment.
In this way, it would be possible to dynamically plan maintenance tasks, to avoid unexpected
Service-Affecting Failures and to optimize maintenance intervals, maximizing the reliability
and availability of the fleet.

28 360.revista de alta velocidad