The Asset Management Value Based Decision Making for Rail seminar was held at UIC headquarters on 10 and 11 October. The conference, attended by more than 40 participants from both infrastructure managers and industry, served to highlight the gap that exists in different companies between the future idea of whole system decision making and current management, across its six different sessions. The UIC Asset Management Working Group is currently working on the WISDOM project, in order to define a value-based whole system decision-making framework.
The two-day event hosted exciting debates among the attendees, in a family atmosphere and with a very constructive approach. The seminar began with the first session, which was chaired by Andy Kirwan, Chair of the UIC Asset Management Sector. This initial part of the seminar focused on introducing the subject of whole system decision making. Rosa Casquero, UIC Head of Asset Management gave an introductory speech and Lucie Anderton, UIC Sustainability Department Director, followed her, explaining “The Future of Rail”. After these UIC presentations, AMCL representatives were able to present the “Development of the UIC Asset Management Working Group Whole System Decision Making Framework”. The session was closed with a presentation about guidance on value-based decisions regarding ISO:55001, given by Mattias Androls, Trafikverket Asset Management expert and member of ISO Technical Committee 251.
The second session, devoted to the subject “Laying the foundations”, started with an RFI presentation about the Road to ISO:55001 certification. Richard Mair, Senior Asset Manager at ÖBB, continued with the presentation “Foundation of the digital twin for the railway infrastructure” and explained the Austrian Track and Line Network Reference System (TLRSYS). Clara Grajal, as Network Performance Deputy Director of Adif, focused on assets’ criticality in the next presentation “Decoding criticality: the best way to know your assets” and Stephen Famuwera, Trafikverket specialist, closed the session by presenting “Value-based decision model for track system”.
The first day continued with a third session related to lifecycle value and alignment. This session was opened by Celso de Azevedo, founder and CEO of Assetsman, who presented “Value from Asset Lifecycle Decision Making”. Maria Manuel Pinheiro, from IP, came next presenting the “Implementation of an Asset Management System (as a support for decision-making)” experience in Portugal. The last two presentations before the final session of the day were “Practical solutions to programming maintenance works in Finland” and “A Methodology for Ensuring Strategic Alignment of Railway Infrastructure”, given respectively by Mikko Sauni (FTIA Budgeting Repairs for Railways Responsible), and Lorenzo di Pasquale (Asset Manager RFI) and Irene Roda (Assistant Professor at Politécnico de Milano).
The fourth session on data and analytics closed the first day of seminar. Binal Patel, Copperleaf Senior Consultant, opened the last set of presentations of the day with the “Tools for maximising value and driving outcomes in Rail and Rapid Transit” presentation. The next presentation, given by Virpi Kukkonen (FTIA Maintenance Management Unit Head), focused on the development of data-based decision making and was followed by Ann-Christine Svärdby-Bergman who explained her experience after working for two years as Trafikverket’s Advance Analytics Factory for Maintenance team leader. Finally, Matteo Coltellacci (Asset Manager RFI) presented the RFI Intelligent Asset Management Dashboard.
The second day hosted the final two sessions of the event. The fifth session, on the topic of “Digital twins and case studies on decision making”, was opened by the RFI’s “Road to Digital Twin” presentation given jointly by Luca Curelli, RFI Asset Management Department, and Alfonso Perna, ACCA Software Market Development, in which they were able to show participants how the implementation of digital twins within RFI is being done. The next presentation, given by Sunny Modhara (Modelling & Analytics Manager at NetworkRail), focused on how investment optimisation for a railway corridor is managed within NetworkRail. UIC Latin America Vice-Chair and ANPTrilhos CEO, Joubert Flores continued the session explaining some decision-making examples during his presentation “Experience from Hong Kong, Rio and São Paulo metros”. The session closed with the “Digital Twin, Trusted Information at your Fingertips” presentation given by Rennie Chadwick, Cohesive’s Global Leader Transport & Mobility.
The sixth and final session was related to “Future developments”. David Villalmanzo (Head of Area Strategic Partnerships R+D+I and Coordination at ADIF and chair of the UIC TTI Sector) and Arianna Amati (Hitachi Rail STS Project Manager), presented “FP3-IAM4RAIL, the Asset Management Flagship Project for Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking” at the beginning of the session. Dr Manu Sasidharan (Senior Research Associate in Infrastructure at Cambridge University) gave a presentation on “Harnessing Digital Twins for Whole-System Decision-Making for Railways”, and Jude Carey, Head of Asset management for Irish Rail, closed the seminar with an explanation of the UIC Artificial Intelligence for Predictive Maintenance project.
