Improving Train Maintenance Through Process Modelling and Component-Based System Design and Implementation

Abstract

Improving the UK train services has been the subject of many debates in the last few years particularly after the privatization of the rail network in 1993. Within the network's complex structure, the train maintenance industry plays a major role in keeping trains in safe condition with a high standard of customer service. The results of a research work carried out by Loughborough University to investigate ways of improving the current practice in this industry through the application of business process modelling and component-based system design approaches are documented in the present paper. The method that has been adopted to enable a formal representation of a typical train maintenance process is discussed in detail and a case study based around a major maintenance supplier on the South West Trains network in the UK is described.