Christian Sprauer

Founder & CEO

Title

Real Use Cases for Predictive Maintenance in Rail

Sub headings

How to move towards, and prepare for, predictive maintenance (a checklist). As with any digitalisation project, there’s no magic bullet for predictive maintenance
Five important steps you should follow in order to successfully deploy predictive maintenance
Two examples of real predictive maintenance case studies in rail and our approach to each of these use cases

Bio

Christian is the founder and CEO of Railnova and a former engineering & operations director at Alpha Trains Locomotives. At Alpha Trains he oversaw a fleet of 400 locomotives across 12 countries. He previously also held a position at Alstom Transport in the service and maintenance division. Christian holds and MBA London Business School, UK, and a msc mech. engineering degree from Ecole Centrale de Lyon, France

Daniel MacGregor

Co-Founder

Title

Cargo owner services, the elastic supply chain and a sensor roadmap

Sub headings

How value can be delivered and revenues captured from cargo owners
What do the different industries need for their rail supply chain success
Which sensors are coming, what can they do and what do they deliver

Bio

Co-Founder, Nexiot AG. Business Development for the EmbeddedLab, a research and engineering lab at the ETH Zurich for Physical Computing/IoT, the foundation of Nexiot AG. Industrial IoT evangelist and digital shaper.

Daniel MacGregor has over 20 years’ experience in applying technology to business needs. Since 2014 he has focused on digitisation of the supply chain. Daniel has worked for the EmbeddedLab at ETH Zurich, going on to become a founder of multi-million Swiss technology company Nexiot AG.

Daniel focuses on uncovering business needs and applying Nexiot’s cutting edge IoT solutions to optimise operations and the clients own service portfolio. This is done through an end-to-end solution from sensor, to information intelligence, to knowledge sharing. Supply chain participants can deploy IoT to differentiate their services and monetise digital insights. The philosophy is to leverage knowledge derived from big data for continuous business improvement.

Benjamin Wecker

Head of Asset Intelligence Team

Title

IoT meets reality: step by step forward

Sub headings

Two-sided IoT approach of SBB Cargo for fleet management and clients’ needs
Equipping a fleet takes time and cost, so internal MVP is needed (GPS position, live counter reading, etc.)
With an equipped fleet potential client whishes can be addressed fast (track & trace, temperature)

Bio

After graduating in administration science Benjamin Wecker (39) joined SBB Cargo in 2008. Since then Benjamin held different positions in fleet and project management. Currently he works as senior project manager and focuses on automatization and digitalization projects within SBB Cargo. The equipment of the locomotives of SBB Cargo with telematic devices is a great concern for him, because this provides the unique opportunity to ensure process stability, drive process automatization, increase fleet availability and reduce costs. As data itself is useless, when nobody calls for action, a great part of his job is convincing its own organization to drive digitalization forward. Doing this he always seeks step-by-step and operationalizable approaches without forgetting the overall goals and vision.

Ignasi Oliver

Director of Transit Service, of Maintenance and Projects Area

Title

Recommendations to succeed in the digitalisation and data analysis of assets in metro networks

Sub headings

Profits obtained and lessons learned from real experiences to build up the systems
Organisational adaptation
Necessary requirements to succeed, overcome fear and catalyse real change

Bio

Ignasi Oliver joined TMB in 1988 in Metro de Barcelona as engineer of Remote Control Systems department. After that he has been manager of several departments of maintenance and of projects. Nowadays he is the Director of Transit Service, of Maintenance and Projects Area, leading +200 people in a team in charge of signalling, remote control, communications, ticketing, tracks and catenary. He has been involved in the major changes in the metro network, introducing automation, adapting installations, procedures and organisational charts to the needs of the metro operation and driverless lines. His main focus has been to provide the best availability to get the best metro service with limited costs. To do that he introduced technical improvements, RAMS management, monitoring systems and the team of engineers to take benefit of it. Now is leading the change of processes and culture to get a true transformation by mean of the digitalisation.

John Smith

Chief Executive Officer

Title

Making sense from the growth of data in the digital railway

Sub headings

Data acquisition from large volumes of assets
The role of analytics to generate actionable outcomes
Simplifying the HMI in large scale and complex environments

Bio

John graduated from the University of Birmingham in 1990 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering.

He joined Jaguar Cars as a graduate trainee and spent 18 years in the automotive industry working in a number of senior engineering, manufacturing and product strategy roles, including a period with the Jaguar Racing Formula 1 team.

John joined the rail industry in 2009, leading the Intelligent Infrastructure programme at Network Rail, one of the most extensive applications of asset monitoring in the rail sector.

Since April 2018 john has held the position of Chief Executive Officer for voestalpine SIGNALING Fareham, the UK based centre for rail infrastructure monitoring, part of the voestalpine Railway Systems group.

As an engineer, John is passionate about the global transformation of railways through the safe, reliable and innovative application of digital technologies.

Jude Carey

Head of Asset Management

Title

Utilising IOT to improve performance in Irish Rail

Sub headings

The challenges for Irish Rail to develop IoT in both rolling stock and Infrastructure
A hidden benefit of our IoT development
Outlook for the future

Bio

Jude Carey is Head of Asset Management for Irish Rail. He is responsible for developing the Asset Management Capability of the Irish Rail network in line with ISO55001 and for the development of Irish Rail’s Asset Management Information Systems. He joined Irish Rail in 2007.

Since 2011 he has been an active member of the Asset Management Expert Working Group in the International Union of Railways (UIC). This group’s membership comprises eleven leading European Railways. The purpose of this group is both to share and develop best practice in Rail Asset Management. He is co-author of the UIC publication “A guide to implementing Asset Management in Rail”.

He is a member of the founding committee of the Institute of Asset Management in Ireland.

Marc Valette

Director of Innovation and Continuous Improvement

Title

Challenges for implementing pragmatic digitalisation in CFL Multimodal, a small freight actor

Sub headings

The visions and challenges of being a small Railway when introducing innovation
Importance & need for pragmatic & applicable solutions due to the contraints of resources
Capacity to transform quickly in operations the added value provided by innovation

Bio

experience in the field of freight and logistics. He worked on different positions (consulting, operational, sales and managerial) in the fields of transport and logistics services. With an engineering and management background, he had to cope with the challenges associated with the recent supply chain evolution. Especially, in the last years, with an increasing importance of information within operations besides technical and HR matters, his concerns integrated more and more the digitalisation as a key to implement new, more flexible and efficient solutions. Now in charge of innovation at CFL Multimodal, He will explain how his group handles innovation as strategic function. The main goal is to prepare and ensure the future by introducing new technologies such as IoT solutions, vision and remote control to ease operations processes as well as creating new services to enforce the business development and client satisfaction.

Marcel Van Velthoven

CEO

Title

The challenges of Digitisation in Rail, what is fact and what is fiction, a realistic view.

Sub headings

Wrestling with the challenges with what to do with the latest IT technology
The experience from the Port of Rotterdam with rolling out Digitisation
What can IT do in the Rail market with Digitisation

Bio

Marcel van Velthoven has been working in the IT industry since 1986, since 1996 he worked in the area of Maintenance and Asset Management with P&L responsibility. In 2019 Marcel started AMOSA realising that many companies, especially in the Rail world have a need for an Architect, a person guiding them in the world of Asset Management and Asset Management Information Systems. He build a very seasoned team, supporting the (Rail) customers to understand why they should get involved in Asset Management and get the support of IT systems. AMOSA has many Rail customers from all over the world, who appreciate the practical approach the company and its consultants offer. Analysing the need of the customer regarding Digitisation and their ability / maturity to get involved in this kind of projects. With our practical approach we get the people on board, realising where they really are and what their journey should be in the world of Rail digitisation. AMOSA has a number of strategic partnerships with Rail IT system suppliers, to have a good understanding what the market has to offer. We analyse the suppliers with their vision and products to be best able to inform our customers what they should consider, like architects are able to offer the best materials for the buildings they design. We like to design and implement IT Asset Management systems.

Dmitry Plakhov

| Head of Blockchain Lab

Title

Wheelsets Life Cycle Monitoring Service

Sub headings

Prerequisites for the development of the project
How choice about blockchain technology was made
Architecture of the project

Bio

Coordinator of the St. Petersburg blockchain developer’s community, meeting up monthly and regarding issues related to development and adoption of technology.

Born in 1974 in Leningrad, is a graduate of Saint Petersburg Phys-Math Lyceum No30; he received good grounding in programming. In 1991 enrolled in Department of Biomedical Optics at Faculty of Physics and Engineering, ITMO University.

He was engaged in several projects hosted by Vladimir Vasilyev, ITMO University rector, e.g. RUNNet Federal University Network, distance learning center, laser medical center, etc. He actively participated in student life. Mr. Plakhov was elected a secretary of the St. Petersburg Union of Students, established by Governor Vladimir Yakovlev in 1999, and also collaborated with the Union of Scientists at the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences in 1996-2000.

Graduated cum lauda from St. Petersburg State University of Information Technology, Mechanics and Optics (ITMO University in praesenti). In 2006 headed the Network Operation Center, serving mass market in the United States. As part of one of the largest Russian integrators (BCC), he designed and implemented a corporate distance learning system in certain governmental and commercial organisations within the period of 2007-2010.

Setting sights on increasing the distance learning capabilities, got into video broadcasts and webinars technologies. As part of his own company, he founded a social video network; further, he collaborated with the First Channel in the area of multilateral video communication via the Internet in 2010-2012.

Until 2016 continued to develop his projects related to distance learning and webinars.

From the beginning of 2016 he has headed Sberbank Technology JSC development, he amplifies cloud technologies PaaS, SaaS, IaaS based on the OpenStack platform.

Since early 2017 actively participates qua Сhief Technical Officer in several forward-looking projects’ blockchain-based developments.

Mohamed Labdoui

Data/IoT Platform Manager

Title

Big Data and IoT Cloud Platforms Manager at SNCF

Sub headings

Define the strategy and the trajectory of the Data/IOT services to meet SNCF business needs
The keys of data and IoT project success
How the cloud and collective intelligence are accelerating the time to market

Bio

Mohammed-Simoh Labdoui is 37 years old who graduated from high school in Paris as a research and development engineer. He is passionate about data and believes in its precious value as the limitless oil of tomorrow.

In the past, Mohammed-Simoh has set up several data and big data platforms to answer the major challenges of various companies. These include Boursorama bank where the platform was used to fight against fraud in real time and to build a 360 degree view of its customers, Orange in the telecommunications sector to reduce the life cycle of treatment of the incidents of its equipment, Safran to assist with their predictive maintenance, and finally Monceau Assurances to build their property and casualty insurance software.

Most recently, Mohammed-Simoh joined SNCF in 2016 as Data and IoT Platforms Manager to help SNCF to become a data company and make its data a way to improve its robustness and fight against competition.

Remigijus Skirkus

Director of Diagnostic Department

Title

The evolution of the diagnostic process at the Lithuanian Railways

Sub headings

Diagnostics for track geometry
Optimizing Big Data for smarter asset management
Ways and approaches to overcome current challenges

Bio

Remigijus Skirkus PhD in Mechanical engineering technology science and Director of diagnostic department, Railway Infrastructure Directorate, JSC, Lithuanian railways. Interested in:

Data digitalization
Data analytics
Predictive maintenance
Diagnostics systems

Diagnostic Department inspects and controls the quality of the track condition from substructure to superstructure, automation systems, communication and power supply equipment, prepares projects for the repair, installation and renewal of tracks, electricity supply facilities, prepares and periodically updates the technical documentation. Also, inspections of locomotives safety, communication systems and general technical condition. Department responsible for equipment metrology periodical inspection of infrastructure tools.

Rene Zeilinger

CTO

Title

Quantitative DAS and Machine Learning enable a quantum leep in real-time train positioning

Sub headings

Quantitative DAS is the next evolution of distributed wayside sensing
In combination with machine learning, this technology provides more accurate information
Real-time train localisation, detailed information on train length and train integrity will enable new and efficient approaches for future proof train operation

Bio

Rene Zeilinger has worked in the Software Engineering industry for more than ten years as a software developer, industrial researcher, project manager, product manager/owner, and CTO. His career started after graduating in Business Informatics at the Johannes Kepler University, Linz in 2005. After several years as a software developer a return to research allowed him to learn more about software/system development processes and methods. In 2011 he applied this knowledge to lead a successful software development project in the mechanical engineering industry. In 2015 he started work at Frauscher Sensor Technology as a product manager with the focus on a new sensor system based on Distributed Acoustic Sensing. In the course of the last few years he has built up and is now leading the research and development department for this product - Frauscher Tracking Solutions FTS.

Victor Martinez

Rail CoMo & Digitalization Global Center Director

Title

On-board IoT solutions applied for reliable maintenance extension of safety critical railway wheel-set

Sub headings

Railway industry is facing challenges to increase traffic capacity while reducing maintenance cost and increase service reliability.
Bogies maintenance represents high percentage of the train life cycle cost and wheels life have been considerably extended during last years
Wheel-set bearings are safety critical components with fixed maintenance intervals, are becoming the limiting factor for wheel-set and bogie overhaul maintenance extension.

Bio

Holds a MPhil in Mechatronic Engineering, a MSc in Mechanical Engineering and a Master in Business Administration from IESE Business School. He is also expert designated by Spain like member of European Committee for standardization, technical committee 256 for wheel-sets and bogies working groups.

Presently he is Global Head of Condition Monitoring & Digitalization Competence Center for the Rail Industry at SKF Group. Prior to joining his current role he was Business Development Manager for Rail and other several segments like Defense and Construction Machinery Business Unit at SKF Group.

Victor has rich experience in various functions in the industry spanning several years. He also held several positions in companies of telecommunication and automotive sector, related to technology development, engineering consultancy, project management and sales development

Javier de la Cruz

Rail Digital Services Managing Director

Title

Digitalisation of Rolling Stock Maintenance: Not only a matter of predictive diagnostics

Sub headings

Brief overview of the pros, cons and state of the art of predictive diagnostics
What else can the digitalisation bring to Rolling Stock Maintenance?
Digitalisation success cases beyond the predictive diagnostics

Bio

Industrial engineer at Zaragoza University (Spain) and automotive engineering at Université de Technologie de Compiègne (France). He started working in automotive sector for Renault and IDIADA but in 2004 entered in the railway sector as North America and ROW Operation Manager for CAF. From 2012 to present he has been Ingenieering Director for CAF Rail Services being highest responsible for Digital Train LeadMind, RAMLCC and Maintenance ingenieering divisions.

Due to his experience and continous formation (Artificial Intelligence: Imprications for Business Strategy (MIT Sloan School of Management), Digital Transformation Management (IE Business School), Big Data and Business (Deusto Business School) he was chosen by CAF Board of Directors to lead the Digital Transformation of the company.

Vanessa Langhammer

Head of Digitalization

Title

Challenges and opportunities of Big Data in a complex legacy IT infrastructure

Sub headings

Our challenge: optimally connecting numerous different data sources to our legacy systems
We can only rise to the challenge through more cooperation and collaboration
Agile product development is both a possible solution to this and a great opportunity

Bio

My current position is Head of Digitalization (CIO/CDO). Having defined the 5-year digital transformation strategy for the company, my team and I are now implementing this program with a focus on process & technological redesign of Rail Cargo’s entire business model while safeguarding the continuity of the existing IT landscape as well as allowing for continuous improvement during the transition phase. The key factor is our combined strategic top-down and operational bottom-up approach to get people involved in cross-functional teams in an agile environment. Prior to this role, I held various positions within the Rail Cargo Group related to process management, allowing me to develop a strong perspective on how to improve cross-business unit collaboration. I hold a degree in mechanical engineering and business administration from the RWTH Aachen, Germany and I am an active mentor for women in technical and managerial roles.

David McGorman

Unipart Rail & Manufacturing Technology Managing Director and Instrumentel, Managing Director

Title

Condition Based Maintenance and the importance of Actionable Information

Sub headings

Data acquisition and large number of Rail assets and the importance of understanding your data
Case studies showing how Condition Based Maintenance can create value, operational efficiencies and savings
How Condition Based Maintenance informs our Condition Based Supply Chain, creating a Digital dynamic supply chain of the future

Bio

Dr David McGorman, is the Managing Director of Instrumentel Ltd, a British company that specialises in precision electronics and telemetry, including Condition Based Predictive Maintenance. With significant experience in the management of technology companies and a strong technical background, David has a proven track record of delivering strategic projects within harsh and difficult to access environments, including the Rail Industry. Instrumentel is part of Unipart Rail which addresses the challenges of the rail industry across the asset lifecycle by working collaboratively with its partners to deliver technology and supply chain solutions that improve performance, reduce risk and optimise cost. David is also Unipart Rail & Manufacturing Group Technology Managing Director. As Managing Director David is responsible for the performance of Instrumentel Park Signalling and Metlase. David also has responsibility for all Digital activity across Rail and Manufacturing Group, and works closely with the Unipart Digital team.

Francis Cepero

Director Vertical Market Solutions

Title

With A1 Digital, Rail Cargo brings intelligent freight wagons onto the rails

Sub headings

Data collection is only the begin/enabler of the IoT journey
Selective data analytics opens a far range of additional use cases
Rail Cargo is using a high sophisticated internal platform where A1D provides those analytics integrated in their platform
A1D is ready for any part of the IoT journey up to a complete turn key solution

Bio

Francis Cepero brings more than 20 years of experience in business software and vertical market solutions to his position as Director of Vertical Market Solutions. Previously he served as Head of Innovation and Technology for Media, Sports, and Entertainment at SAP SE. Francis Cepero holds a master's degree in physics and international marketing and has completed several post-graduate programs at Columbia University, as well as at INSEAD and MIT.

Simon Giovanazzi

CEO

Title

Deutsche Bahn - driving industrial digitalization in Germany

Sub headings

Experience as pioneer of asset condition monitoring and predictive maintenance in Germany
Effects of cross-systems analysis: infrastructure assesses rolling stock failures and vice versa
Leverage IoT and AI benefits will need a transformation to adaptive rules and regulations

Bio

Simon is the CEO of infraView GmbH, a 100% subsidiary company of DB Engineering & Consulting GmbH, and the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Deutsche Bahn International Operations and in this function a member of the CTO Board of Deutsche Bahn.

Simon is a dyed-in-the-wool railway man, having worked in operational service in various positions before taking up his studies in transport engineering.

During his more than 20 years in the railway industry, he has built up an unparalleled expertise in rolling stock and infrastructure asset maintenance. He is a sought-after expert, driving optimization of railway operations and maintenance worldwide and in Germany. He is a key player for the digitalization of Deutsche Bahn, especially in further developing condition monitoring and predictive maintenance solutions based on infraView’s DIANA IoT platform. Simon is member of the CTO Board of Deutsche Bahn.

Timon Bock

Chief Executive Officer

Title

Augmented Wagon Inspection

Sub headings

Traceability of rolling stock inspection operations
Remote assistance for the wagon inspector
Rolling stock data acquisition for train preparation

Bio

Tiziano Croce is an engineering graduate of Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and a business studies postgraduate of University College Dublin. Currently, he is the acting Chief Executive Officer of Rail Cargo Carrier Italy, the Italian subsidiary of Austrian Federal Railways, and shareholder and director of TRAINing, the first railway training organisation recognised by the Italian Railway Safety Authority providing training and certification for train checkers, train conductors, train drivers and rolling stock inspectors as well as consultancy in the fields of railway safety and railway accident investigation. Tiziano is an instructor/examiner accredited by the Italian Railway Safety Authority (ANSF) (and by the Austrian Ministry of Transportation) (BMVIT) for train checkers, train conductors, train drivers and rolling stock inspectors and an independent expert for railway safety and railway accident investigation appointed by the European Railway Agency (ERA) and by the Railway Accident Investigation Branch of the Italian Ministry of Transportation. "instructor/examiner accredited by the Italian Railway Safety Authority (ANSF) and by the Austrian Ministry of Transportation (BMVIT)"

Pieter Moelans

Rolling stock Engineer

Title

Our journey to remote diagnostics: a step by step approach.

Sub headings

The challenge of managing cross fleet data streams;
Integrating IOT in existing rolling stock, a step by step approach
Purchasing and maintaining new fleets: the battle against obsolescence

Bio

After graduating as an aerospace engineer Pieter started working at the SNCB in a train repair workshop in 2009. It is during that period that his interest in remote diagnostics was triggered. After three years in Hasselt Pieter started working in Brussels at the SNCB headquarters, where he initially looked over the maintenance program of the newest trains in the SNCB fleet: the AM08-Desiro. It was during this period that he got the opportunity to work with the remote diagnostics data of the AM08 trains. With the raw data at hand he started developing software for the workshops which allowed the Engineering Team to monitor their fleet and to organize and schedule the corrective maintenance that needed to be performed. Over the years he has extended the scope of the remote diagnostics to other fleets and is always keen on integrating new features that improve the reliability and maintenance processes.

Plasser & Theurer - has influenced the progress in the construction and maintenance of railway tracks more substantially than any other company. As a full-range supplier operating worldwide, the Austrian family business supplies track maintenance machines of almost all kinds and sizes and provides high-quality services over the entire life cycle of the machines. Our success story began with the production of tamping machines that stood out from all other products on the market due to their technical superiority. To this day, Plasser & Theurer tamping machines are the standard in track maintenance. Over decades, new machine models have been added to the machine programme. Today, the machines we offer cover almost all works to be performed when maintaining, laying and renewing railway tracks. In addition to machines for all track gauges in all parts of the world, we offer machines in all output categories meeting our customers’ needs. From a classic machine manufacturer to a modern full-range supplier.

Today, Plasser & Theurer is more than just a machine manufacturer. As a full-range supplier collaborating with 19 partner companies around the world, Plasser & Theurer offers comprehensive after-sales services, covering training, spare parts supply and technical service. The farreaching innovations in mechanised track maintenance not only involve new machine technologies, but also set new standards for the cost-efficient operation of machines. Developed by Plasser & Theurer, the PlasserSmartMaintenance initiative provides digital solutions that ensure greater transparency, connectivity and efficiency for both the maintenance of individual machines and entire machine fleets.

Sustainable quality increases cost-efficiency The contributions we make towards the cost-efficiency and sustainability of the railway system define our success. We set store by quality, innovative technologies and solutions providing the customers with real economic benefits.

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SŽ – Vleka in tehnika (SŽ – VIT) provides comprehensive services in the field of rail vehicle maintenance and train traction together with a diverse range of technical wagon services. With a market presence of over 150 years, the experience gathered over the years is carefully combined with present knowledge as we continuously grow our expertise to ensure value added for our business partners.

Maintenance, traction, and technical wagon services are provided to Slovenian Railways (SŽ), who is our biggest business partner; however, the diverse range of our rail vehicle and component servicing has also gained recognition outside Slovenia. Quality maintenance and specialized know-how coupled with notable flexibility and the ability to tackle any challenging request from rail companies across Europe has persuaded many private keepers and state operators to become our partner.

Our qualifications are demonstrated by various certificates, authorizations and approvals, such as ECM, ISO 9001:2008, ISO 14001:2015, ISO 50001:2011, VPI, and TSI for the assembly of new wheel-sets, while the quality of our work has been attested by some of the biggest keepers of rail vehicles.

One-stop shop

All services needed for safe and reliable vehicle operation from a single source:

comprehensive preventive and corrective maintenance,
renewal and modification of all rail vehicle types,
processing and assembly of wheelsets and servicing of other components,
mobile service,
engineering and technical support,
technical inspections, brake testing, repairs of coupled wagons, and loading assistance.

Main locations: Ljubljana, Ptuj, Maribor, Dobova, Divača, Koper

Meet the Speakers