NSB — Norwegian State Railways

When NSB chose IFS more than a decade ago, it found a partner who helped reengineer key work processes as well as a software provider who offered a mature maintenance management system (MMS) to improve overall business performance. NSB hasn’t looked back once.

Increasing Efficiencies and Containing Maintenance Costs

As one of IFS’ oldest customers, NSB started using an IFS-supplied material planning system in 1991 to support its in-house maintenance operations. The system expedited workflows, and as business grew, NSB expanded the application through add-ons and modifications to respond to the changing needs of its operations.
However, when NSB reviewed its entire operations 10 years later in an attempt to increase efficiencies across the board, the company realized that its existing work processes needed improvement. More importantly, NSB also became aware of a technology gap between its existing system and state-of-the-art systems—a gap that would have to be bridged if NSB wanted to grow and remain profitable.
An upgrade of the business software system became the key.

Reengineering and Automating Processes with IFS Applications

After evaluating a number of business software providers, NSB quickly concluded that continued collaboration with IFS was the best way to go.

“Above all, it was a question of trustworthiness,” Nils Viktor Evensen, system manager at NSB, explained. “The IFS consultants we had worked with—and IFS on the whole—had invested a lot of time over the years to learn about our specific requirements. They knew our business and our needs better than any other suppliers, a fact that was reflected in the IFS Applications functionality that supported our business processes.”

What also mattered to Evensen was the fact that “IFS was able to offer a bigger package in the form of a completely integrated suite of flexible component-based applications” and that IFS “had long experience of providing maintenance solutions to large companies.” Prior to implementation, NSB performed a detailed analysis of its business and work processes, especially of the existing maintenance and procurement flows. When NSB compared these with standard best-practice business processes defined in IFS Applications, the company saw the need to modify several of its business flows.

Implementing the Solution

Once the new processes were mapped using IFS Business Modeler™, IFS’ graphic modeling tool, IFS consultants started the implementation and began data migration.

As though to prove the remarkable flexibility and scalability of IFS Applications, IFS consultants had to make last-minute adjustments during the implementation when NSB underwent a significant reorganization in the summer of 2002.

And prove they did. The implementation was completed within 12 months and according to schedule.

Multiple Benefits

For NSB, one of the main benefits has been the ability to better plan maintenance activities. This has enabled NSB to minimize asset downtime and thus to take a big step towards controlling lifecycle costs.

Just as important for NSB is the capability to trace and document any performed maintenance. Norwegian government safety regulations stipulate that all documentation related to the usage and maintenance of trains be available on demand.   With IFS Applications, service and maintenance data is stored in one database and can easily be retrieved when required.

And since all data is readily available, it can also be used to keep a critical eye on overall cost and performance trends—another business benefit that makes continuous improvement more than just a phrase at NSB.

On the maintenance side, managed by Mantena, the new IFS system is also a success.

For Ole Johan Jensen, IT director of Mantena, one of the key advantages of IFS Applications is its open architecture because it facilitates easy integration among functional components and thus effective information flow.

“First of all, we interface seamlessly with NSB, our customer, so information exchange is immediate,” Jensen explained. “Secondly, integration between components like Vehicle Information Management and Work Order Management makes it easier for us to fulfill NSB’s requirements for accurate information for the process to continually improve reliability, availability, maintainability, and safety.”

In addition to improving daily operations, IFS Applications has also helped Mantena in its long-term decision-making. As Jensen points out, with IFS Applications “the maintenance history can be used to improve the quality of work processes and, eventually, to enhance the design and engineering of future rolling stock.”

IFS Applications also provides Mantena with detailed inventory and parts control down to the smallest components on rolling stock. This enables more efficient, less expensive and, ultimately, more competitive maintenance.

For the Norwegian State Railways, the future looks promising. With IFS Applications, the company is well positioned to meet new market challenges and adapt its organizations accordingly—not only due to running leaner and well-connected operations but also because of IFS Applications’ component-based architecture, which enables step-by-step growth as business situations change.

NSB’s choice of IFS Applications has resulted in a return on investment that extends from the short term to the long term—a multi-dimensional business decision by a company that’s everything but one-dimensional.

Facts about Norwegian StateRailways (NSB)

Owned by the Norwegian Ministry of Transport and Communications, the NSB Group has been a limited-liability company (AB) since 2002 and consists of nine wholly or majority-owned subsidiaries. They include NSB, which is engaged in passenger and cargo rail transport, and Mantena, which provides maintenance and upgrade services of rolling stock.

The NSB Group has more than 9,000 employees, with an annual revenue exceeding USD 800 million (2001). NSB is a pioneer in the development and use of fleet and maintenance management systems for rail.