Melbourne’s Yarra Trams has just inked a A$2.6 million (NZ$3 million) deal for asset, service and mobility management software.
The goal is to improve its maintenance services and secure an additional 22 million passenger trips over five years.
The Maximo Enterprise Suite product, from MRO Software (which is being acquired by IBM) includes Enterprise Asset Management, Maximo Service Desk and Maximo Mobility. The package will manage service-level agreements, and integrate mobile devices such as PDAs and laptops into the asset-management framework.
Yarra Trams chief executive, Dennis Cliche, says maintenance of tram carriages (rolling stock), which previously used a variety of manual systems, will slot mobile and remote technicians into the management system.
“Up until now, we’ve been relying on various disparate and largely paper-based systems inherited from several mergers and restructures,” he says.
“Of special interest to Yarra Trams is the ability to integrate mobile devices such as PDAs and laptops into the overall asset-management framework.
“With a fleet of almost 500 trams travelling more than 22.5 million kms each year, the maintenance of rolling stock is core to Yarra Trams.”
The system will go live in November and will be deployed in three phases, covering rolling stock, infrastructure and deployment of the Maximo Service Desk at the operations centre. MRO Australia country manager Adrian Hocking says the system will ensure consistency across the company’s maintenance and servicing activities, and will eliminate reliance on manual paper-based systems, providing accurate records for asset performance evaluation purposes.