The change from preventative to predictive maintenance: The organisational challenge

The “Health and Prognostic Assessment of Railway Assets for Predictive Maintenance” project is developing a Remote Conditioning Monitoring (RCM) system to manage asset degradation to enable predictive maintenance. This... [ view full abstract ]

The “Health and Prognostic Assessment of Railway Assets for Predictive Maintenance” project is developing a Remote Conditioning Monitoring (RCM) system to manage asset degradation to enable predictive maintenance. This paper investigates the organisational challenges associated with introduction of the RCM system with the purpose of facilitating change from preventative to predictive maintenance.

With the number of passenger journeys predicted to reach half a million daily by 2021, keeping the London Underground system on track is a major challenge. Even scheduled works are disruptive and costly, so knowing where and when to deploy maintenance resources to maximum effect is critical. An RCM system creates a paradigm shift, a change from static to dynamic scheduling. This, in turn, demands changes in organisational practices and procedures if it is to be implemented successfully.

Previous research shows that there are several key human factor issues, associated with the introduction of a new maintenance regime: the need for clarity between teams regarding roles responsibilities and procedures; the need for sharing ontologies across business domains; and the need for clear knowledge sharing processes to aid decision making together with a shared organisational strategy. A three step approach was taken to identify these organisational challenges associated with the development and implementation of the RCM system developed to monitor and predict the remaining useful life for London Underground escalators.

Preliminary findings show that although there are already condition monitoring procedures in place, the current organisational processes regarding maintenance are very much focused and constructed around reactive and preventative maintenance. The existing asset monitoring system is less technically and functionally advanced than the proposed new RCM system and modelling the current organisational configuration has provided several indications of the challenges that need to be overcome for a successful implementation of the RCM system. The paper will describe the approach adopted to model the current ‘As is’ maintenance processes and associated organisational structures which revealed issues to do with unclear or duplicated processes, poor communication and data sharing links and problems with delineation of responsibility for decision making. It will go on to describe the development of the ‘To be’ model which incorporates the additional functionality provided by the newly developed RCM system necessitating changes to roles, structures and processes and identify the training that will need to be provided such that the business can successfully reorient itself from reactive and preventative towards predictive maintenance.

The “Health and Prognostic Assessment of Railway Assets for Predictive Maintenance” project is part of Enabling the Digital Railway and is founded by Innovate UK and RSSB.

*This submission has industrial application and will be suitable for the first day of the conference.

*The authors would like the paper to be considered for inclusion in the special edition of the Journal of Rapid Rail and Transit.