The Solution
Thales has created ThalesMan, a fully integrated mobile asset management solution specifically designed for the rail user.
The solution is aimed at engineering and maintenance teams, drivers, back office control staff and other key business users.
ThalesMan ensures that critical information and business functions are available to the right people at the right place at the right time. The solution comprises:
- Mobile Asset Management - PDA based interface - designed specifically for the rail sector
- Secure mobile communication
- IBM Maximo for transportation
- Context aware middleware by Appear
- Integrated GPS based tracking
Asset Management
Asset management requires a clear understanding of the structure, location and condition of an organisation’s assets. This facilitates through-life costs reductions and improvements in operational efficiency.
Without this clarity, organisations can be forced to over maintain as a risk mitigation strategy. Un-targeted, reactive, or poorly planned maintenance activities can lead to an unacceptable number of in-service failures; reducing track or fleet availability and driving up costs.
By enabling pro-active maintenance regimes, capturing and analysing reliability information and monitoring the condition of assets, organisations are able to focus on the condition of key assets and maintain them just before they are about to fail.
Mobility
A truly mobile asset management solution empowers the workforce by providing information flow to the point of need, provides customised decision support tools, and high quality transaction management.
Key Components
Thales’ integrated rail asset management solution delivers functionality essential to improving key operational efficiencies. The main components are:
- Maximo, an asset management product specifically tailored to the transportation industry. It enables rail organisations to use advanced product capabilities to better support people, process and technology. Providing:
- Asset configuration management
- Work order and workforce management
- Supply chain management
- Appear, a middleware framework designed to meet and anticipate the needs of mobile workers. The platform adds intelligence to standard wireless networks, transforming them into channels for the delivery of relevant information in a context sensitive manner. Providing mobile:
- Context sensitive access to key application services
- GPRS communications
- Data access / transfer
- Geographical security alerts
- Device management
- Integrated location based tracking
- Remote sensor and security technology
- RFID tagged GPS location
- Customer cargo tracking
- Anytime access via web portal
Benefits
Addressing an organisations key operational and asset management requirements can yield significant and far reaching benefits. Typically operators realise the following:
- Improved fleet reliability and utilisation through enhanced maintenance planning and depot management
- Reduction in in-service failures through the enablement of active condition monitoring of critical components and assemblies
- Reduced turn around times and increased asset availability through enhanced operational support processes such as electronic train consists
- Improved warranty recovery and reduced spares inventory through enhanced data management
- Support regulatory compliance through improved data control and event recording
- Improved customer experience through enhanced information sharing, data integrity and data security
Context
Rail freight carriers, passenger operators and infrastructure managers have to address the challenges of:
- Improving in-service availability for both mobile and fixed assets
- Reducing asset maintenance costs and over-maintenance
- Increasing reliability and reducing in-service failures
- Escalating safety requirements and regulatory compliance
Key Requirements
- Best of breed asset management product set
- Secure, fully integrated, context aware, ergonomically designed, interface for mobile staff
- Field-proven mobile devices
- Advanced tracking facilities
- Industry specific design