Maintenance cost reduction thanks to better forecasting

To support the objectives of its public shareholders, SNCF needs to improve continuously the cost, quality and safety of its services. Maintenance of the rolling stock is a crucial element for both.

Strategic challenge

SNCF is one of the biggest operators of passenger traffic in Europe. To support the objectives of its public shareholders, SNCF needs to improve continuously the cost, quality and safety of its services. Maintenance of the rolling stock is a crucial element for both. The maintenance involves 22 500 people doing maintenance on close to 100 types of rolling equipment and repairing about 20 000 repairable parts per year.

'The objective of our Supply Chain is to guarantee the availability of the spare parts for our internal business partners responsible for the maintenance of the equipment,' says Servane Morin-Badier, project manager SNCF. 'These maintenance operations are fundamental to guarantee the safety and comfort of our passengers.'

With more than 100.000 article codes to manage, used in 38 maintenance and repair centers, efficient demand management is crucial to avoid stock outs, manage the load of the different repair centers, improve buying power towards components suppliers and negotiate contracts with the right subcontractors. The complexity of the various types of consumption makes the need for well-designed processes even more important.

During this project, Möbius has been a valuable partner. The consultants have quickly understood our activities and constraints and the importance of the project. They respected our deadlines and the objectives and helped us to look differently at the way we worked by bringing in experiences from other industries.

Servane Morin-Badier Project leader

Approach

Nine workshops to define the target methods and processes with about 20 stakeholders from different functions

Definition of the most appropriate forecasting and demand management method for the different types of articles (criticality, value, internally/externally procured, …) and consumption patterns (maintenance type, seasonality, …).
Design of the most appropriate demand generation and validation process with all functions involved (supply chain, engineering, maintenance centers, business, …) including timing, roles and responsibilities.

Definition of functional requirements & selection of the appropriate tooling

Translation of methods and processes into concrete specifications for the future demand planning software, allowing an objective selection of the most appropriate tool on the market. Selection of the demand management tool.

Implementation of the forecasting tool

Implementation of the tool and the processes (internal team + software vendor).

Result

Agreement reached on target process and methods:

Successful implementation of the forecasting tool

Within a period of two months, the target methods and processes for tactical and strategic demand management were defined and validated.
Four months later, a new demand planning tool was selected.
About one year later, the new processes and tool were implemented, on time and within budget.

Measurable results