xv discussion paper

Paper for Discussion Regards XV and the Future System Requirements

Prepared by:

……………………………………………Gary Howell, Engineering Business Development Manager

Authorised by:

............................................……………Darren James, Head of Engineering Asset Management

This document is the property of First Capital Connect.It shall not be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission from the Head of Safety.

Published by:First Capital ConnectTechnical Engineering DepartmentHertford House1 Cranwood StreetLondonEC1V 9QS

© Copyright 2023First Capital Connect

Paper for Discussion Regards XV and the Future System Requirements

FCC Engineering XV PolicyIssue: 1, Revision: 0Issue Date: 01-09-2010Page: 2 of 17

Contents

Section Heading Page

1 Introduction (History & Rationale for paper) 4

2 Scope 4

3 Project Goals 4

4 XV User Guides (Local Procedures) 5

5 System Requirement Change 5

6 Training 5

7 XV Subsidiary Projects1. XV Code Set Change2. SVM to Routine Activities3. Standards Tasks4. Training & Competency Bolt On5. XV Cleaning Bolt on6. XVPlus7. Emergency Preparedness8. Reports & analysis9. Data Alchemist - Repeat Defect Monitor10. Failure Mode Analysis (FMA)

6 - 12

8 Conclusions and Final Recommendations 12

9 Completion Criteria 13

10 Review 14

11 Costs 14

Appendix Copy of the Project Management Plan and associated estimated time/cost resource tables

15 - 18

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IntroductionHistoryIn light of the differences between the measures for Performance & Safety Risk based analysis referring to Fleet defects used on the GN and the TL Fleet Engineering depots, I was tasked with producing firstly a Policy that will enable synergy between our engineering sites for the way in which we manage our Fleet maintenance data, from both how the data is entered at source into any electronic asset maintenance management computer data base system. Secondly how it’s then acted upon with regards to dealing with the work load it creates and including how it’s rated for safety and performance risk. This needed to be developed in consultation with the Head of Engineering Production and his key managers within both production sites. Whilst ensuring that our current maintenance management system (XV) is able to facilitate and report on the information. Finally when the policy has universal agreement, use it to develop the ‘Control and Management of Data in FCC’s Asset Maintenance Computer System – XV’ Local Procedure. This will be the ‘how to’ guide for all engineering users, including identify and arrange any briefing, training or other engineering documentation change required.

Rational for this PaperAs identified above the Policy for the Control and Management of Data in FCC’s Asset Management System (FCC/ED/EMS/4/POLICY/002) has now received universal agreement and will be issued to form part of the Engineering Management System. The secondary tasks of developing and writing the Local Procedures for Hornsey and Bedford Cauldwell (which are the XV ‘User Guides and Training Documentation) are nearly complete. However in the process of investigating what’s required for delivering the key outputs of the project, it was discovered that many tasks remain either unmanaged or have not been able to be started as they need other critical, yet connected work to be completed first. These have been listed in this paper for discussion as XV Subsidiary Projects.The subsidiary projects are further expanded upon within this document to explain how they link with the original overall project aims and indeed how they enable a road map to prepare FCC Engineering for the launch of the next version of XV, as well as enabling a robust Performance & Safety measurement regime to be effectively introduced. This paper also sets out the order in which these subsidiary projects need to be addressed, the risk to the business in not delivering them and finally the estimated project resource and time scale requirements. Attached as an appendix, is the Microsoft Project Management Plan.

ScopeWe are seeking support from the FCC Engineering exec team in attempting to isolate, explain and add resource costings to the task requirements, as I believe that the project key deliverables will take some specialised and dedicated Project Managing.

Project GoalsPolicyFirstly a new FCC Policy has been developed and has received peer group approval. It clearly defines what is required of our current Electronic data base system regards the control and management of data relating to the history of all defects, all work done and the current status regards outstanding and deferred defects of our main assets (e.g. our fleets).The ‘Policy’ determines the responsibilities, process and procedure for the management of all defects (both unplanned and those found on planned maintenance activities). The Policy

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set’s the criteria to be applied at all FCC Engineering locations for all fleet defect Safety & Performance measurement and management.The Policy states how these Safety & Performance criteria will be monitored by locally agreed KPI’s. Finally the policy lays out the minimum criteria regards engineering qualification required to be eligible to be a registered XV user and how these criteria will be assessed for the users competency, as XV is both a business and mission, safety critical tool that forms part of our safety case regards authority to work and handing assets back fit for passenger service.

XV User Guide (Local Procedures)Now that the policy has gained universal agreement it will form part of the FCC Engineering Management System. The Policy will be briefed in to all key stakeholders. The XV Local Procedures are near to completion for both FCC Engineering sites. These unify the process for all of the key issues mentioned above. They are Local Procedures as they form part of each engineering sites Quality Manual, as well as being used as training and reference manuals.

System Requirement ChangeAny change to the current recognised practices at both the engineering sites of Caudwell and Hornsey of entering and managing data into the current XV Data Base, will be identified and prioritised by the Project Manager to be made by using ‘in house’ XV IT expertise, to either change current screens within XV or to add automated reports to enable the Shift & Production management teams realise their individual KPI’s.As an example, it is recognised that currently no automated time based report for the length of time defects have actually existed within XV (both Deferred at source and outstanding defects) is available. A time-based XV query report will need to be developed and delivered in an automated format to enable the management of this process. The PM believes we have the FCC ‘in house’ engineering experience and expertise to deliver this requirement at no cost.

TrainingAny change to the locally used ‘custom & practice’ regards the input, extraction and management of asset defect data into the current XV system will be captured and unified under this Projects key deliverables. However, it is recognised that change will need to occur in some way at both sites. The level of training required will be dependant on that change. Training will be delivered at the level required to ensure that all XV users are compliant with the new Policy and Local Procedure that the Policy drives. A separate work stream will run in conjunction with this project to identify what is required at which appropriate level i.e. is a briefing adequate or is a formalised training course required? The Project Manager will make that recommendation to the Head of Engineering Production once the XV user Guide(s) have been delivered. I believe that with all of the identified change programme steps required to deliver all of the subsidiary project tasks and the introduction of XVPlus, then Training will become a major key deliverable and will take up a major project resource, for both of FCC’s engineering sites and all of the Train Presentation depots and out stations. These estimated resource training requirements will be shown in the project plan. (see appendix for full subsidiary project work breakdown structure with resource/time costings)

XV Subsidiary Projects

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In carrying out an investigation into developing the initial project deliverables I have found that there are several distinct, yet related, work streams that are either in various stages of development or ‘on hold’; that are related to the data receptacle that is know as XV. These work streams are identified and listed below. These critically related sub task projects need to be viewed holistically as they are intrinsically linked to enabling and delivering the asset maintenance data base to be taken to the next level of critical business effectiveness. The aspiration was to manage these projects as a whole, from ‘in house’ FCC engineering XV management expertise, to deliver the current XV platform to be taken to a point where the new version of XVPlus© can be launched globally within FCC Engineering. However, this has been problematical because the Engineering new organisation is in its infancy and is still forming. This paper lays out the tasks required to enable a resource matching process to take place, which can then deliver the project as a whole, inclusive of the subsidiary tasks identified in the following paragraphs.

1. XV Code Set ChangeThe current XV code sets need to be changed to allow alignment to other work surrounding the development of an asset model. The asset model will determine the whole life cycle costing for all aspects of the Fleet Maintenance regime, including new Fleet introductions.

See Appendix for a full work break down structure of suggested tasks and estimated resource requirements. But below is overview of this task’s risk and resource estimates

Risk in doing Risk in Not doing Resource Estimating

Ensuring all current codes are fully captured in the new code sets

Unable to link XV to whole life costing model via Asset Model and Training & Competency

Work has been started and developed by the Risk & Standards Manager

Down time to XV access whilst switch over is made

Will require further resourcing with Asset IT Manager and external IT consultant

Understand the code change affect on all the current set up of Automated Macros e.g. Balanced Score Card and provide solution to ensure these still run OK

Still awaiting a FINAL ESIMATE REQIURED from G2 (GH – I have put a TW estimate into the PMP)

Delta Rail costs

If operation fails – being able to recover XV to a known good point

2. SVM to Routine ActivitiesBoth Depots use XV to record exams and defects arising from exams, the Thameslink account uses routine activities (RA) to manage this and the GN account uses scheduled vehicle maintenance (SVM), the GN account is limited by using SVM’s as only two maintenance patterns can be used (currently exam A to E and NDT), where as the RA can use multiple planning patterns.



Getting the Exam patterns and mileage 100% correct as this can only be checked once we go live

Can not go to XVPlus as XVPlus does not support SVM and Scheduled Campaigns

32 work days FCC Asset IT Manager

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3. Standard TasksCurrently within the XV system it has been set up to automate the process of delivering a template format for planned exam maintenance, by enabling a print off of an exam card. This can show Block Structure breakdown with reference to VMI numbers, time on and off etc and is a fully comprehensive record of all the tasks involved, including areas to record measurements, consumables used and unplanned work. For all other planned maintenance activities outside of the planned exam schedules there is no facility for printing off standard task sheets (e.g. Traction Motor change, Windscreen Wiper Control Valve change). So outside of our exam regime, where the Exam blocks refer to Vehicle Maintenance Instruction actually printed off from XV, we do not do this for other tasks? The Standard tasks module within XV would breakdown all Fleet maintenance related tasks into parent child task sequencing, with appropriate reference to the VMI or Maintenance Procedure with any relevant local Quality Work Issues. Then the artisan train maintainer has instant reference to this key information and especially any final check and/or testing requirements. A substantial amount of work has been started on this work stream; however this work was stalled some time ago. It needs resurrecting to be completed in line with this project’s outputs.



None We have no record of who did what within multi-task activities (e.g. T/M change)

12 work months XV PM

We have no recordable section within XV for finish work checks and testing criteria

About to introduce within the Franchise length period a new training & competency regime that links tasks to risk via task intrusiveness levels and system and mission critical importance via an Asset Model. Other than Exam/VMI/Block book procedure we cannot make links to all identified tasks within the Asset Model and XV

4. Training & Competency Bolt OnA training and competency facility within XV has been developed ‘in house’ that with further in depth development, could allow for a secure ‘authority to work’ regime to exist. Currently there is no automatic check within XV that enables the work issuer to see if the intended artisan is both competent and/or trained in the area of the work concerned. Its important to say here though that this module is part of the intended upgrade of XV to XVPlus and Delta Rail have been influenced by our Engineering Team at Hornsey regards its development and eventual system ability. Currently the risk to us is that within XV there are no automatic limitations to appointing an artisan team member to any task without first automatically checking to see if that person is currently trained and competent in the work allocated. I

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suggest that this current work stream goes no further in anticipation of what will be available within XVPlus. However, we can investigate as a temporary measure until XVPlus is available, the setting up of an automated link from the formation of the XV job card, to check via a satellite spreadsheet which holds the current training and competency information. This would need to be resourced via Chris Sutton Ltd and is part of the project Gantt chart.



Currently can not show that we without fail know that the person being given a set task to work on our assets is both fully trained and assessed as competent.

Chris Sutton by using the current platform of XV linked to one of his externally automated macro and spread sheets (e.g. training and competency data base)

Do have the potential to appoint un trained or non competent colleagues to engineering tasks

20 work days (external IT resource requirement) and XV PM

5. XV Cleaning Bolt OnA Train Presentation Cleaning bolt on was developed and written in conjunction with Delta Rail programme developers for XV over 4 years ago by the then FCC TP Management staff. The bolt on has been available for some time to go live (has been used by Southern Railway for some two years, but has not been fully effective due to no planned training regime). In investigating this subsidiary project requirement I have found that both the RA project and XVPlus must be delivered first, before the XVCleaning module can be implemented. Basically this is because the Cleaning Exam Regime will need to use RA’s and the XVPlus platform is far more stable and supported for the introduction of bolt on modules.



Cant be delivered on the current platform

Not all TP locations have access to XV (or basic IT?)

Major Project and will need a Train Presentation manager resource applied as well as the XV PM. Estimate 6 work months

Will need more ‘in depth’ training for TP Duty Leaders

SQMS scores continuously failing

Stress to TP Team Leaders No easy way currently of centralising all of TP costs

No way of work scheduling to match service requirements

No real auditable trail of who did what, when or work done

6. XVPlusXVPlus exists now and is in use by other TOC’s and asset based maintenance organisations throughout the UK. XVPlus takes XV to the next level of usability and more importantly has a business intelligence (BI) platform as part of the package to automatically

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allow dash board ‘at a glance’ visualisation of various bespoke performance measurements, that currently are an onerous task to set up via MV Query. We have to switch over to XVPlus as the current software platform that it’s based on (Visual Basic) will not be supported by Microsoft from the end of year 2010. Delta Rail will continue to support XV – but if the problem is related to Visual Basic it will not be able to fix it! The new IBM platform of SB Client which underpins XVPlus has also found to be much more stable platform in allowing the introduction of ‘bolt on’ modules, so it becomes user definable e.g. The Dynistics Business Intelligence Dash-board is a bolt on and does not have to be used, as its under its own licensing arrangements. Again XVPlus although of great benefit to the business can only be switched on when the Routine Activities task has been completed first. The Code Set task change can be done concurrently with the introduction of the XVPlus project, but would make things somewhat easier if completed first.



No Recognised Engineering Manager for responsibility of managing XV related issues

XV current platform not supported after end of 2010

6 work months XV PM

Amount of re-training required Will be some external Delta Rail costs in setting up and train the trainer etc

Cost of new licences XV PM will negotiate licence and service support costs etc

Testing of Product before going live

7. Emergency Preparedness Currently there is no policy or procedure that specifically states what action we should take as a business if XV fails in any way shape or form. What exists are local ‘custom and practice’ arrangements that apply because certain key individuals within Engineering have formed long term, knowledge base understanding of the system and have formed good working relationships with Fleet Software and lately Delta Rail. These people will attempt to rectify locally or have become the local champions in dealing with 3 rd party suppliers in an attempt to resolve any issues. Obviously this would not stand up to rigorous audit and only works with the good will of these individuals, if they are on site. It’s wholly unacceptable and needs urgently addressing. Local Procedure needs to be developed which states what we do in the event of losing XV, how we maintain Fleet data integrity and more importantly how we recover the situation and ensure capture of all events during and post any XV breakdown.



None Possibility of lose sight of Defects, Safety Status, Restricted units in service and the Maintenance Plan requirements

15 work days XV PM

Loss of unit history availability

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8. Reports and AnalysisThere currently a problem that we are experiencing with MV Query blocking current recognised users. This is causing major problems at both our Engineering sites. The main reason why this is happening is the hunger for data information via management by measurement. We have set up within engineering globally automated Macro reports where these interrogate stored XV data and then presents the data into other business intelligence formats e.g. The Balanced Score Card. This automated process although is working well for this requirement, does use an excessively high demand on our current user license allowance – this in turn blocks those that within their day to day activities have to run reports within XV MV Query to gain information on Fleet Performance….its a catch 22 situation. In investigating and understanding this problem I’d suggest the project manager will need to look at the following potential avenues as solutions.

Simply buy more Licences to meet our increase business demand Introduction of XVPlus business intelligence dash board bolt on may well drastically

reduce the amount of XV data extraction via automated macro programmes that we currently need (The Dynistics BI ‘bolt on’ will have extra licence costs)

To use the already set up automatic downloads to produce reports that are currently run manually via MV Query – this will require external IT special resourcing. These current reports will all need to be evaluated for need and business critical worth / cost benefit analysis.



Cost Licences XV info out keeps stalling due user restriction criteria problems

Investigation into problem with view to proposal solution, 2 weeks

Cost of external specialist IT resource

Risk to Performance critical data Write paper for discussion to gain solution support (business Case), 2 days

Cost of XVPlus dash board BI bolt-on

Will need to await the XV PM resource time estimation

9. Data Alchemist – Repeat Defect InitiativeData Alchemist have been asked to provide FCC with a service known as the ‘Repeat Defect Monitor’. In summary, FCC transmits data relating to faults on its rolling stock from XV to the Data Alchemist server, whereupon a software program will evaluate the fault reports in order to identify repeat defects. A defect is deemed to be a repeat if it is the same or substantially similar to a previous fault that has affected the same unit/vehicle within a given time period.

The Repeat Defect Monitor works by looking for patterns in the text of the fault reports. Because of this, Data Alchemist will undertake a significant amount of work to ‘train’ the program to understand acronyms, abbreviations and technical terms relating to our rolling stock within FCC. Data Alchemist will initially set up the monitor by using terms from historic fault reports, but will continue to undertake periodic reviews of the customer lexicon when new words appear.

When the Repeat Defect Monitor identifies what it believes to be a repeat defect, it will send an alert email or SMS message to a list of recipients identified by the XV project manager. Full details of the original and repeat defects will be available for our key staff to access on a secure website. As the project progresses from the initial stage as described above the

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intention is to role out more intuitive interrogation of the same available data from within XV to visualise other pre determined outputs that currently XV does not easily display without running onerous MV Query reports e.g. stock on hand material reports, campaign progress reports, exam sequence reports etc. This initiative is now up and running after some initial delay surrounding actually getting access via the BT/FirstGroup IT Fire Wall(s). Data Alchemist are developing their web site to enable a business development ‘dash board’ type approach, where not only text recognition repeat Fleet defects are displayed, but other intuitive information is available such as ‘high number of parts issued against vehicle’. This is made possible as XV also is the receptacle for all stores data via the TACT inputs, this initiative shows great potential. However we need to understand what’s being planned within the Data Alchemist product compared to what’s being made available within the XVPlus launch, as there is a real danger of duplication of service. The positives with the Data Alchemist initiative are that the users are unlimited and as its web based this information can be accessed securely from anywhere at any time. Also it becomes a secondary back up to our live data as we currently transfer data to them 4 times every 24hrs.



Duplication of what’s already in the Business Intelligence bolt on of XVPlus (but need to understand the BI cost from Delta Rail)

XV does not have the capacity to spot repeat or potential repeat failures via text recognition

Project has started, but will need briefing and training to the wider user group and Local Procedures amended accordingly – 4 work weeks XV PM

Not getting the full potential of what the system can offer regards material costs as well as driving fleet performance improvements

10. Failure Mode Analysis (FMA)Currently the version of XV used within FCC Engineering is not capable fully of analysing or trending the data it stores. So as part of our Engineering Management System within the Measurement and Audit Policy FCC/ED/EMS/7/POLICY/001 it explains the importance and indeed the safety and business criticality of recording all operations events experienced within engineering by using the Failure Mode Analysis (FMA) process and how this analysis is then linked to the asset model. When ever an item becomes defective on rolling stock the technical and circumstantial information relating to the defect is captured in sufficient detail so that meaningful technical evaluation can be carried out. The defect data is kept in a data base which is used to produce trends that, once analysed, can be reviewed and appropriate action plans created to address the technical performance of the rolling stock. Without a structured and formal framework for recording these defects the trend data is hard to establish. It is important to note that these defects are not in themselves non-conformances, but should a trend indicate (for instance) that a maintenance practice is leading to defects; the error in the maintenance would then be reported as a non-conformance and dealt with in the appropriate manner. The Failure Mode Analysis form should be completed for all instances of defective equipment irrespective of if they are found during exam or during out of course repairs. It cannot be over emphasised that accurate use of these forms is vital to the process of continuous improvement of the rolling stock performance.

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This part of the subsidiary tasks has been added because currently at Hornsey the FMA process is not being used and it is not fully 100% at Bedford Cauldwell either. The XV PM resource needs to drive forward the introduction of FMA at Hornsey by investigating can a FMA form be produced from within XV when a job card is created? Secondly what exists within XVPlus that will link to our requirement of the EMS regards FMA development and its links to the Asset Model.



Duplication of what’s already in the Business Intelligence bolt on of XVPlus (but need to understand the BI cost from Delta Rail)

Will not gain full accreditation to ISO9000 at next audit and will not comply with our own EMS

Resourced for in XVPlus understanding and XV PM introduction above

Will not be able to give whole life cycle costing or Fleet Performance trend analysis via links to asset model

Conclusions and Final RecommendationSince the introduction of XV at Hornsey TSC in 2003, the ‘project management’ for its effective setting up and ongoing development has been undertaken in house. This was due to the large installation costs associated with the project and originally it was felt to reduce this cost, internal project management was necessary. This specialised project management was achieved through secondment of Engineering Production Team Leaders. The product development and installation was achieved in 7 months, this radically reduced the cost from an initial estimated cost of £250,000 down to £50,000, also just as important was a good working relationship between Fleetsoftware (now an owned subsidiary of DeltaRail), which still continues today. After the initial implementation, the project management stayed with the production Team Leader, but was fitted in around the ‘day job’, to this end XV has suffered as focus would be short term and due to costs, some projects integral to the performance and further development of XV and the engineering performance regime reliant on XV were shelved. In early 2007 Delta Rail announced they would no longer develop XV, also FirstGroup had announced they would be looking for a Integrated Fleet Management System (IFMS) so at this time anything connected with XV was shelved. In late 2007 DeltaRail reconsidered and decided to continue with development. Since then the project management has moved on in the same way and only being carried out when time allows.Although the XV system does not require full time management, it does need a management focus, especially with the ever-increasing demands the business is requiring from the system. DeltaRail are expanding the system with XVPlus and its BI dash board capability. If for no other reason than the obvious one of that the current platform will not be supported from early 2011, then we must acknowledge that change is needed and these changes must be managed. Where once FCC engineering where at the front and were actually used as a shop window by XV product developers for other asset management companies in the UK, we are now falling behind other TOC’s and Asset Maintenance organisations. Yet at the same time XV has become an integral and ‘business critical’ part of FCC engineering, all performance data, defect analysis for growth plans etc use the data that XV gathers, so to not have a focus on the projects explained in this document could have a detrimental effect on FCC engineering’s progress. In conclusion, its essential to both our business mission

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and safety criticality to ensure our computer asset management system XV is in a robust and healthy condition and the supporting process and procedure’s within our EMS that underpins its operation will stand up to rigorous examination as well as intuitively enabling us to highlight areas of performance concerns and/or improvement. My investigation into its current status shows that this currently is not the case, indeed going forward into the Thameslink Project we need to adopt the change proposed above to fulfil this projects key deliverables. I therefore seek support and authorisation from the exec team for the specialised project management resource as identified in the attached appendix.

See Appendix for a full work break down structure of suggested tasks and estimated resource requirements. But below is an overview of risk and resource estimates for the total

and outstanding XV Project subsidiary tasks as identified in this paper


No major risk associated with the change

FCC will go forward into the Thameslink Project final phases (new Fleet introduction) with an outdated and unsupported product that is its only asset maintenance computer system, which is not fit for purpose

Approx 266 work days – see PMP attached

Completion CriteriaThe project will be considered closed once all FCC XV data inputters and Fleet Performance Annalists have been briefed or trained accordingly, have access to and can use the product successfully. Risk assessment actions closed, project close meeting concluded and Form 4 submitted.

ReviewA project review meeting will be held towards the end of the project and at a pre defined post project date, to review the performance of the project team, ensure all initial key deliverables have been implemented and are working effectively and ensure any lessons learnt are fed back to all stakeholders.

CostsCosts at this time are yet to be agreed, however the project costs are initially for ‘in house’ project management resource cost and are accounted for within the engineering budget. Subsidiary project task deliverables as described above are additional costs that may well require additional external specialist resourcing – but none the less could be covered with an ‘in house’ project manager, albeit via a secondment. A separate costing model and project plan will be developed to show how the subsidiary projects listed above can be successfully delivered within set timescales.

Gary HowellEngineering Business Development Manager

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Tel: 07901577589

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Appendix

xv discussion paper

Documents