Company
Bombardier Transportation is the global leader in the rail
equipment, manufacturing and servicing industry. Its wide range of
products includes passenger rail vehicles and total transit
systems. It also manufactures locomotives, freight cars, propulsion
& controls and provides signalling equipment and systems.
Communications Challenge
Bombardier Transportation had been using machine to machine
telemetry systems on board its rolling stock for four years to
transmit details of how individual carriages are performing and
when they will need maintenance. The machine to machine
communication monitors factors such as wheel adhesion levels, door
closing times and engine performance that affect the performance
and safety of trains. This information is passed to train
maintainers enabling them to fix faults as soon as they occur,
keeping more trains on the tracks.
Reviewing its needs, Bombardier wanted a system that was
efficient, measurable, and easily scalable. It also wanted an
operator who could provide the right Service Level Agreement’s to
ensure the required levels of network performance.
Systems Overhaul
Beginning in 2002, Bombardier Transportation examined a range of
telemetry options before deciding Orange M2M Connect best met its
needs. Prior to deciding on Orange M2M Connect, Bombardier
conducted surveys of all mobile networks to ensure it would have
the best network coverage available.
Orange M2M Connect is designed to help organisations save time,
money and effort managing their processes. It is an end to end
approach that quickly and easily connects businesses such as
Bombardier, to the information they require. The system consists of
a centrally-hosted gateway capable of communicating with thousands
of wirefree devices.
M2M Connect enables real time performance monitoring, allowing
Bombardier to measure efficiency, and identify, diagnose and
resolve problems quickly through a simple internet-based programme.
The system is flexible, scalable and future-proof enabling
Bombardier to gradually roll it out across its fleet. Bombardier
has 1000 rail vehicles on its existing telemetry system and is
currently moving 20 per cent of it’s UK systems to M2M Connect with
the remainder phased in over time dependent on suitability and
their remaining life-span.
Orange has also worked with Bombardier to ensure specific Service
Level Agreements meet Bombardier’s needs.
Following the success of the implementation in the UK,
Bombardier is reviewing options to roll out the system to the
European market and is examining installing the system on its
carriages worldwide.
“With reliable, timely and accurate data, we can now supply
the rail industry with business critical information – we can even
tell them if there are leaves on the line! The Orange M2M Connect
system we’ve installed means that we can now get access to our
information in close to real time. In the past we have only been
able to retrieve data from our cars about 70% of the time. With the
M2M Connect solution that connectivity rate is now in the high 90%
range. This allows us to plan our daily maintenance schedule much
more efficiently, smooth the workload for our staff and help us
target issues much more accurately.”
Vincent Smedley, Engineering Director, New Products,
Bombardier Transportation Services
Customer ROI
The availability of accurate real time information has enabled
Bombardier to greatly improve efficiency.
- Daily maintenance schedules can be easily compiled and planned
depending on problems highlighted by the telemetry reports.
- Problems on individual cars can be identified as or before they
occur allowing Bombardier to provide a faster and more effective
service to train operators and preventing trains being taken out of
service for longer periods.
- Valuable information can be passed on to train operating
companies to improve service levels.
“Gartner believe that by 2006 there will be nearly 58
million mobile M2M devices in use in North America and Western
Europe. Orange M2M Connect allows these businesses to move away
from managing their own legacy systems to use a flexible, scalable
and future proof platform to monitor the operation of machines such
as Bombardier’s train cars enabling them to provide a better
service to their customers.”
Alastair MacLeod, Customer Development Director, Orange
Business Solutions
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