MANAGING VITAL RAIL ASSETS Feature Around the world, SNC-Lavalins Rail & Transit expertise helps clients overcome a variety of engineering dilemmas, both big and small. Now theres a clear and compelling new way to talk to customers about SNC-Lavalins global asset management capabilities, as Viewpoint found out Words Andrew Bennett F rom developing long-term maintenance strategies for a new metro light-rail network, planning the refurbishment of rolling stock at the optimum time in the vehicles lifespan, to safety audits of depots and branch lines clients have a continuous need for the skills offered by SNC-Lavalin. Much of SNC-Lavalins work within Rail & Transit Engineering can be considered as asset management and although maintenance of railway assets usually plays a part in this, it is certainly not the whole story. While the quality of SNC-Lavalins work is world class, these projects are often referred to in varying terms. But, over the past year, this has changed thanks to the progress of an SNC-Lavalin Global Product Network for asset management, which has helped the company simplify and sharpen its sales pitch. Anders Orup, who heads the global network and is Sales & Marketing Director in Sweden, said, when the group first met, members realised they had much in common and there were some significant new opportunities to be gained. Very quickly after the asset management product network was created, we realised we were doing a lot of business in this area, explains Anders. A new offering for customers TAPPING INTO THE DIGITAL POTENTIAL We instantly came up with an idea: Lets try to create a global service offering for our customers. Discussions took place between the senior engineers and managers who make up the group one of around 20 such global product forums at SNC-Lavalin. These revealed that, while there might be different terminology for asset management projects, regions including Canada, Sweden, the UK and Australia arealready offering many of these services to clients. For instance, in Australia, Section Lead Amy Lezala is heading a number of throughlife sustainable engineering projects that optimise maintenance and thevalue of assets. We didnt have a sales positioning around asset management, or an offering todescribe it, says Anders. The Canada Line, an automated rapid transit line in the So the asset management hub was created based on the insight of global network Metro Vancouver region of British Columbia members and the large-scale asset management requirements necessitated by the major P3 (publicprivate partnership) transport projects in Canada with which the firm is involved. Very quickly after the asset Recent examples include the Canada Lineand the current management product network was Eglinton Crosstown LRT project. created, we realised we were doing a We have the start of a framework of the SNC-Lavalin way of providing asset management services, taking the things we do lot of business in this area in Canada and applying them to other markets, and it is a very Anders Orup strong message to clients, said Anders. Sales & Marketing Director Rufus Boyd, Global Product Director atTransport Advisory a UK-based memberof the product network said theteam had worked on how to communicate the business benefits of practising asset management. These messages have been included within a lunch and learn presentation delivered, so far, to employees in the UK, Australia and Canada. Huge potential savings One of the challenges for anyone selling asset management skills whether strategic or technical is that it sounds like spending more money, whereas based on everything we know better asset management has huge potential savings for clients, said Rufus. We want to demonstrate that for our clients and show how much is generated in terms of savings. Creating sales materials will be part of our next phase of work. The development of the hub and a year of business development activity has led to opportunities such as an informal meeting in Sweden during October, when 35 rail industry CEOs were invited to hear about the SNC-Lavalin approach. The hub makes it simple to communicate, rather than describe for example the very detailed international standards that exist on asset management. Were focused on keeping it simple, using the hub and the basic scenarios clients may face, with a mindset on asset management instead of constantly referencing for instance the details of the ISO 5500 standard, says Anders. The hub can be used in a classic elevator pitch, when an SNC-Lavalin engineer or consultant finds themselves with 30 seconds to brief a rail company CEO or other decision-maker. Call on our experts The hub approach allows the conversation to start, but then typically ends with us saying: We have an expert that can help you, says Rufus. Previous global models were very, very complex like wiring diagrams and made little sense to the non-specialist. Anders concludes: The network has achieved a lot during its first year people within it have been really creative and forward looking. For the next year, we need to focus on doing on a few things really well. Providing a true global service offering is vital for the company. viewpoint@snclavalin.com snclavalin.com Another strength of SNC-Lavalin globally is being able to draw on bigdata expertise to help clients manage and maintain their rail operations. Within an asset management context, this knowledge is proving particularly useful for clients who want up-todate analysis of wear and tear on their operations. It means they can adopt smarter maintenance strategies with a greater ability to predict which components might wear out. maintenance teams and crosses barren deserts. In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), SNC-Lavalin has assisted client Etihad Rail with a project to install remote condition-monitoring sensors on rolling stock used by the mining railway. It runs far from any population centres including This is true in a number of locations we operate in for instance, with the freight railways in the USA, and freight (heavy haul) in Australia. The latter experiences extremes of heat. Meanwhile, in Sweden and Canada, we have extremes of cold, he said. The monitoring technology allows a number of factors including wear and tear on the rolling stock and track, as well as drivers techniques to be fed back to the railways operators. Rufus explained the asset management needs of clients are dependent on the environment. In Canada, SNC-Lavalin has also been working with technology company Inframodex, which has developed a web-based application offering a new view on asset management. Catherine Laplantes team has been collaborating with Inframodex on this tool, which allows a new level of modelling and simulation of asset management situations and problems across a clients rail assets. Where the opportunity is right and works well for clients, SNC-Lavalin will explore other opportunities to draw on external resources to add further strength and depth to its asset management know-how.