French operator looks to Irish Rail to make savings and improve reliability

They may have some of the fastest trains in the world but the French have come to Ireland to learn how to make savings while also improving the reliability of their fleet, including their TGV trains that reach speeds of 320km/ph.

SNCF is learning how Irish Rail has used lean management practices to improve the reliability of its trains while also reducing staff in the maintenance area and cutting costs.

Change in culture
SNCF is 18 months into the lean management programme, and Bertrand Boceno, who is in charge of maintenance development for the SNCF network, said it is a system that brings with it a change in culture which could take "five or 10 years" to complete.

“We wanted to look at where we can go with this. What we see here in the [Irish Rail] technical centres in Drogheda and Inchicore are very interesting, and I would be very happy if in four or five years our technical centres could be like them,” he said yesterday.

SNCF has 25,000 people employed across its 37 depots, and he said “we know we have a lot of waste in general in SNCF and want to improve on that as Irish Rail has done. It is really comparable when I see all the improvements done here and the possible improvements we can do in SNCF.”

He said the lean management system of work has already seen €500,000 saved on one project by SNCF.

Chris McMorrow, head of fleet management with Irish Rail, said lean management principles “can be applied in any business”.

Since they was introduced by Irish Rail in 2007 they have seen maintenance staff numbers reduced from 76 to 60, which train maintenance costs fell by 30 per cent or €23 million. The company says there has been a 75 per cent increase in the reliability of trains.

Manufacturing
Lean management started in the manufacturing industry in Japan and moved to Europe.

Speaking in Drogheda where Irish Rail maintains its commuter fleet, Mr McMorrow said: “In 2007 this fleet had 36,000 delay minutes due to mechanical faults. There has been an incremental improvement since then, and last year it was at 2,500 minutes.”