Project Update - August

Project Progress

This month, we have begun preparation for final reporting in September for the close of the project. We have added content and will soon review for this submission in September. We are progressing on the white paper, and plan  for this to be published before InnoTrans (20th September) with our survey results, testing progress and summary of the next steps. 

In regards to testing, our VM is being created that will be supplied to Birmingham. We are scheduled to start testing by the beginning of September, and will show the results of this validation in our second advisory board on the 14th and possibly at InnoTrans, along with laptop based presentations. 

Digital Maintenance Advisory Board 

We held our first Digital Maintenance Advisory Board, with 7 Board Members present representing a variety of roles and responsibilities, and stakeholders in the rail industry. The Board agreed on the following points. 

1.  In general, the benefits of the product were recognised as relevant to the current challenges of digital maintenance, including having an audit trail, efficiency of maintenance and having a centrally managed platform for maintenance activities

2.  One area where we can further improve is planning for more in-depth testing and demonstrating the scope of existing testing - both with a security focus and other situations such as coupled units and dynamic testing

3.  Next session, the board members would like to further explore the cyber security aspects of the solution, including how to ensure the integrity of the file, and how to make sure changes are authorised, and the software is valid, etc.

4.  We should consider applications elsewhere e.g. freight, locos and other transport modes e.g. buses

5.  The board raised a risk around continuous remote connection and a risk because of multiple things being done at the same time. The board would like to further explore how we aim to mitigate this risk with our existing measures, and how we can improve these.

6.  We need to improve our description of roles and responsibilities, explaining who does what and how it fits into the workflow, and address implementation of adding more intermediate roles such as depot or shift manager

7.  We should consider opportunities for integration with maintenance systems as part of broader development plan, e.g. Maximo

8.  We should explore opportunities for follow on testing and future partnership and funding opportunities

Our second and final board meeting will occur in September, and their feedback will inform the content of the report, and the next steps for the project.

Next steps and broader engagement 

We are now scoping post-TRIG activities and making plans through to the end of 2023. It is clear that there is sustained and increasing interest from industry around Digital Maintenance and the TRIG has both helped to accelerate the industry capture of requirements and broaden the number of organisations spoken to. The confidential nature of the Digital Maintenance Advisory Board  has added a further level of reach. We are further along than we would have been without the TRIG.

New evidence of sustained impact includes: 

• ▸ Proactive offers 3 new industry technical and site visits planned for September in addition to our existing programme. One operator visited the RazorSecure offices and received the DMAB briefing along with a demonstration of RazorSecure’s existing Explorer tool, which is operational on a major passenger operator. It was evident that the combination of Digital Maintenance proof of concept  could directly meet their commercial and regulatory needs for their new trains, reducing turnaround time and increasing both asset reliability and maintenance of staff competencies. They arranged for the RazorSecure CEO to meet their Chief Engineer the next day, and discussions are now being planned, alongside a broader RazorSecure and BCRRE research partnership and plans for DMAB in 2023.  

With our October talks, to our project sponsors and industry networks and the points above, we anticipate that the team will continue to receive enquiries. We have already been offered track testing time in 2023 from one operator, and access to a potential “cyber demonstrator” train from another operator.

Both RazorSecure and BCRRE are preparing for InnoTrans, a major transport trade fair in Berlin, which attracts potential customers, users and challenge owners from across the world. The outputs of this project will be disseminated at InnoTrans on both the RazorSecure and BCRRE stands, respectively.