The fourth edition of the UIC Asset Management Global Conference, organised by the UIC Asset Management Working Group (AMWG), was held at the headquarters of UIC in Paris from 17 – 19 April 2019.
Following previous successful seminars held in 2013, 2015, and 2017, this 2019 edition took place under the heading “Choose the best track for your assets” and consisted of keynote speakers, case study presentations and discussions to provide railway infrastructure organisations with concrete examples and guidance to improve their Asset Management capabilities.
Sponsored by the companies Assetsman, Oxand and Cosmotech, this three-day conference was open to all stakeholders in the sector of asset management with the aim of presenting the latest developments in various industries (roads, waterways, energy…) and on different continents. The recently issued ISO 55000 application guide formed the backbone of this conference and was the basis of its programme.
The conference, attended by more than 100 participants from 24 countries all around the world, opened on 17 April with keynote speeches by Mr Jean-Pierre Loubinoux, UIC Director General, Mr Peter Kohler, Australia Asset Management Council, Mr Aurimas Brazys, from DG MOVE and Dr Marc Antoni, Director of the UIC Rail System Department. The guest speakers were introduced by Mr Teodor Gradinariu, Senior Technical Advisor for the UIC Rail System Department and moderated of the conference.
Jean-Pierre Loubinoux emphasised, among other points, that:
“Since 2018-2019, UIC has considered Asset Management to be a key issue for operators and the sector. Many processes and benchmarking references have been developed with the contribution of our members and partners. Through our work, Asset Management has been recognised as a true science to help decision-makers correlate performance, productivity and investments.”
Mr Peter Kohler, Australia Asset Management Council, spoke about the status of Asset Management in 2019 (title of presentation: Defensible maintenance budgets – supporting the realisation of stakeholder value).
Mr Aurimas Brazys, DG MOVE, presented the EC investment programme for infrastructure military usage (title of presentation: Dual-use infrastructure funding through the connecting Europe facility).
Dr Marc Antoni spoke about modelling tools for Asset Management. In his presentation summary, he said modelling is necessary to estimate value and risk of infrastructure in different scenarios and that it is essential to consider the industry balance composed of maintenance costs – network performance regarding the business – quality and safety, including security.
This conference was an excellent opportunity for open, relevant and comprehensive exchange of information between multi-sector and international organisations.
Eleven sessions and two round tables over the first two days bringing together around 40 speakers from various fields such as infrastructure, the supply industry and the railways, covered the whole asset management process, enabling participants to get a clear view of the challenges that organisations are now facing. In the railway sector, participants explored the UIC Asset Management Working Group’s latest results and benefited from its unique experience accumulated since its creation in 2008. Participants also learned how other industries have adopted asset management theories and practices in order to improve their own.
Among the main topics, the conference addressed:
- Asset Management standardisation
- Developing Asset Management in the railways
- Integrating maintenance into the Asset Management cycle
- Asset Management strategies and innovative approaches
- Asset Management digitalisation and big data
- Impact of operations in the Asset Management life-cycle cost
In the concluding session Mr François Davenne, Deputy Director General, thanked the participants for attending. He highlighted the importance of Asset Management as a strategic activity and more specifically for the Rail System department because it is first and foremost a common vision which unifies the railway community.
Mr Davenne mentioned five words that he heard during the seminar and that are giving shape to a modern concept of Asset Management, namely:
- Breaking the silos between the different processes in order to share information
- Management, since beyond the technical aspects such as trends for safety, the key question is how to take efficient management decisions
- Simulation, the process of organising and gathering information should enable the behaviour of the assets to be modelled successfully
- Digitisation, which is the enabler for processing information and taking management decisions in real-time
- Safety and security will be more and more intricate since digital processes can be vulnerable and could end up with safety issues
He ended by saying that the implementation of Asset Management in railway companies would make the rail sector stronger, more efficient and enable it to develop a common culture and a shared modelling of the rail system.
Highlights this year included an optional third day, where participants could take part in either:
- A technical field visit to Altametris (subsidiary of SNCF), to take part in a presentation about a drone fleet and learn about drone capacities and specific user cases, enabling participants to see the impact of digitisation and big data on the asset management sector.
- An Asset Management business game organised by Assetsman, where participants could learn in one day how an Asset Management programme benefits an organisation and the changes that are needed to achieve success.
Presentations delivered during the conference are available on the dedicated website at:
