Challenge
The rail service engineers who maintain rolling stock by looking after engines, braking systems, vehicle components and various products are highly skilled individuals. It’s essential to ensure their safety critical skills are continually monitored and kept up to date.
At Wabtec’s Derby based transit field services operation, this involves assessing a 70 strong team of individuals who work right across the UK and the Republic of Ireland, carrying out vital repairs to exacting standards.
Keeping track of everyone’s competency cycles using paper and spreadsheets had become a cumbersome process, as Ashley Harrod, Senior Operations Manager of the Powertrain and Rail Systems division explains.
“We needed a more standardised way to assess the team, and our previous approach was very admin heavy which was holding us back. We were competent, but not as efficient as we could be.”
Business challenge
Wabtec identified a range of challenges which it needed to address:
- As the business had developed over the years it was becoming more complex to see where everyone was in their competency cycle, and to ensure all staff were up-to-date with their assessment and training.
- Relying on spreadsheets and paperwork was increasing the risk of mistakes creeping in such as duplicate copies and lost records.
- With no standardised system for assessment, everyone was doing things differently, making it difficult to keep a centralised record.
Solution: RailSmart Employee Development System (EDS)
To ensure the services team had the skills to work safely, deliver on time and meet customer expectations, Wabtec wanted a more streamlined way to manage competency, so it implemented RailSmart EDS.
RailSmart EDS is designed to maintain safe working practices in rail by providing businesses with a clearer view of where they are with their employees’ skills. The system allows assessors to use tablets to capture, record and manage each of the skills required for someone to do their job.
The data is all stored in one place, making it much simpler to manage multiple competency cycles.
Benefits realised
Wabtec has just entered the second year of using RailSmart EDS, and so much has been achieved already. The benefits are clear to Ashley and his team.
- One central database making it easier to plan assessment visits around service engineer availability, holidays and sick leave.
- Automatic alerts which highlight when an engineer is reaching the end of a competency cycle so everyone’s assessments are kept up to date.
- Instant access to all the appointments, assessments and interactions for the entire team at the touch of a button.
- Easy assessment at the side of the vehicle, with assessors entering data into a tablet which is automatically stored in the system.
- Instant image capture, as assessors can take photos of a service engineer’s work on the iPad which go straight into RailSmart EDS.
- A standardised system for competency management, reducing the risk of error and ensuring everyone is working in the same way.
- Time savings with no need for assessors to bring paperwork into the office and rekey it, or to take photos on their phone and email them across later.
Ashley explains how RailSmart EDS has enabled Wabtec to improve its whole approach to assessment.
“We have moved from a one day assessment to a five day assessment model, and even though the assessments are now longer and more thorough, we are still saving time by using RailSmart EDS.
“One day assessments used to be a simple exercise which checked that an engineer knew how to carry out their duties safely. However, the whole process would normally take 3-4 days by the time the assessor had completed their paperwork, scanned in and sent over relevant photographs for review. Added to that, individuals could often spend hours or days trawling through databases preparing for audits and sharing vital information with our customers.
“The five day assessment is a more streamlined way to manage assessments. We can now deliver a robust process allowing a real focus on getting a much deeper understanding of a person’s skills and capabilities, while enabling Wabtec to demonstrate these to customers.”
Change management
A new system involves change, and everyone at Wabtec UK needed to get used to new ways of working, as Ashley explains.
“It’s always a challenge helping individuals adapt to change and see the benefits. The team at RailSmart EDS have been fantastic in the way they supported the team through the transition, and they continue to help us move in the right direction.
“We can now share competency information with the engineers themselves, so they can look at the system, see all their records and check their own skills are in date. This has really helped them get on board with the system.
“It was interesting to see how the team members who had been the most resistant to change have completely turned around and now praise RailSmart EDS for its ease of use and functionality.”
The future
A year into its relationship with RailSmart EDS, Ashley describes how Wabtec has plans to develop its use of the solution further.
“RailSmart EDS is already helping us work more efficiently and giving us a clearer view of our staff competency status. Now we would like to use it more to understand our business trends and help us continue to improve our performance through data-driven planning.
“We are also expanding the implementation to our other UK site with the aim of getting more people at Wabtec to join the RailSmart EDS revolution and keep our teams working safely every day.”
