By Frank Sadowski, Head of Technical Support & Safety

In any industrial or technological system, maintenance is crucial for ensuring smooth operation and longevity. As we move toward an increasingly digital and automated world, integrating this information into maintenance is becoming more and more important. In this article, we will discuss the current state of the maintenance known as “mileage-based revision”, the vision for its future, the next steps to take it to the next level, and how flexible maintenance fits into this equation.

Current status of maintenance

The traditional approach to maintenance has always been: be reactive and fix problems once they arise. It has been based on assumptions about the wear of components that are 15-30 years old. However, in addition to being costly and inflexible, this approach can lead to idle times and lower efficiency. Plus, any significant increase in mileage also results in much higher risks. To address these problems, preventive maintenance based on wear-related data, such as mileage, has proven to be a better approach. This comprises regular inspections, servicing and repairs to prevent idle times. And this approach can also be improved thanks to the emergence of predictive maintenance, which uses data analytics and machine learning to anticipate potential problems even before they arise.

Vision for the future

The future of maintenance lies in the integration of preventive, corrective and predictive maintenance with Industry 4.0 technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR). This will allow wagons and components to be monitored in real time in addition to providing immediate status reports and alerts to our operational staff. AI will enable us to make our predictive models more accurate and effective, to offer options for maintenance, and to cross-check them in advance with maintenance histories. All of this can be aligned with location information and available capacity. Maintenance will then be structured in a modular fashion, which in turn will boost flexibility, decrease idle times and increase safety.

Next steps

To make this vision for the future a reality, the next steps will also have to entail a cultural shift towards a proactive approach to maintenance. This means that investments must be made in training and continuing education to enable employees to gain proficiency in using advanced technologies, such as AI and AR. To enable predictive maintenance, VTG and its partners will also have to invest in the necessary infrastructure, including sensors and data analysis tools. Lastly, collaboration among the maintenance, operations and IT departments will play a crucial role in our efforts to successfully adopt advanced maintenance strategies. These strategies will be very different from what has been implemented to date. As was the case with the EMBRACE initiative, the next step will require rethinking, showing courage, taking ownership, and being willing and ready to shape the future. We will only be able to accomplish this if we work together.

Flexible maintenance

In addition to proactive maintenance, there is also a growing need for flexible maintenance, in which maintenance schedules and activities are adjusted to changing business needs and environmental conditions. Flexible maintenance will enable us to make better use of our resources, to reduce maintenance costs, and to ensure that wagons and components can remain in service for longer. This approach includes a dynamic maintenance plan that adapts to a range of factors, including changes in production demand and wagon capacity utilization. In addition, this involves individually inspecting assemblies and components instead of overhauling the entire wagon. Especially in modular and intermodal transport, this would result in considerable improvements.

Conclusion

In summary, one can say that the future of maintenance – including the integration of advanced technologies, such as AI and AR – is exciting. However, to make this vision a reality, a cultural shift towards proactive maintenance, investments in training and infrastructure, interdepartmental collaboration, and the adoption of flexible maintenance will be of vital importance. The next stage for maintenance is to put into place an autonomous system that also contributes its own “thoughts”, so to speak, which would lead to even more efficiency and safety.

Figures on our experiences with EMBRACE

Monthly distribution in 2022

Without EMBRACE, we would have planned 10,117 revisions in 2022. But thanks to EMBRACE, this was reduced to 4,634 revisions and more mileage checks (MCs) were performed as a preventative measure. Thus, even though we performed revisions earlier as a result of new leases and the offsetting of peaks in subsequent years, we were able to reduce the total number of revisions by 5,483.

After maintenance has been performed on a wagon or a component, a “breaking-in” phase begins in which the wagon or components are gradually incorporated into service. After that comes the “steady” period, when the wagons or components perform with little error in accordance with their design and construction. The green line shows the preventive limit that we want to reach through pre-idle-time maintenance. The red triangle is the safety zone before the idle time. Here in the red triangle lies the scope for flexible, preventive and predictive maintenance. In this triangle, I can extend availability, postpone the idle-time point, or initiate preventive maintenance in advance.