NedTrain is the leading provider of rolling stock maintenance in the Netherlands. It supports operators and owners by maintaining, modifying, and upgrading railroad cars and locomotives on a 24/7 basis.
Challenge
NedTrain split from NS, the Dutch national train operator, in the 1990s. They were contracted by NS to maintain 2,800 units, ensuring no more than 170 were in maintenance at any one time. However, NedTrain often exceeded this limit, requiring NS to fund spare capacity. NedTrain also had to deliver the highest levels of quality and availability for the lowest lifecycle costs to attract non-NS customers. To achieve these objectives, NedTrain knew it had to:
- Reduce inventory by improving planning and forecast
- Improve parts availability (70% for rotables, 83% for consumables) across its network of 9 main locations, 35 service locations, and 65 warehouses
- Reduce harmful part cannibalization
- Distinguish planned from unplanned usage
Results
By deploying Servigistics Service Parts Management solution across its network, NedTrain was able to:
- Improve customer service levels while reducing inventory and synchronizing business process
- Improve parts availability to 94% at location level and to 98.5% at network level
- Honor its Service Level Agreements
- Manage and balance central and regional stock as it relocated large volumes of parts from 6 maintenance centers to one new central distribution center in Tilburg (the Landelijk Logistiek Centrum - LLC)
- Forecast separately for planned and unplanned usage
- Allocate materials based on deployment
- Identify exceptions, investigate the issues behind them, and take corrective action
NedTrain parts management
NedTrain understood the value of a service-based solution and selected the Servigistics Service Parts Management solution. The advanced functionality was a perfect match for NedTrain’s needs, integrating smoothly with its ERP system and providing a reliable platform for the planning of its parts across a complex network.
Scope
- 26,500 parts on stock (value: €40m)
- 400,000 parts coded
- 56,000 parts in ERP
- 9,000 rotables
- 15,000 parts active per year (8,000 stable per year)
- Stock turnover: 1.0
- Stockholding distribution: 45% central /55% in regions
- 210,000 stock movements per year
- 235,000 stock usages per year
- Over 500 service parts suppliers
Results
NedTrain successfully achieved its critical objectives of reducing inventory and improving parts availability, which increased customer satisfaction. As well as meeting its obligations towards NS, NedTrain successfully developed the capabilities to support other customers.
“If we don’t meet our customer commitments, our customers cannot meet theirs,” says Bert Postema, NedTrain Planning Manager. “That’s why we chose Servigistics Service Parts Management, and we are delighted with the results and the customer satisfaction improvements it has helped us achieve.”
Bert Postema, NedTrain Planning Manager, NedTrain