Ride the tube. Rent a bike. Float the Thames. Hop on a bus. There is an extraordinary number of ways to travel about central London. And it’s the job of one agency—Transport for London (TfL)—to keep all of those journeys running smoothly.
“TfL is essentially a combined group of transport companies,” explains Richard Thomas, Senior Product Manager for Asset Management and Engineering Solutions for the organization. “And in the past, each one of those companies had their own asset management solutions, around 60 in total.”
“For example, with the London Underground,” he continues, “we had two distinct maintenance organizations—each with their own maintenance platform—meaning support processes varied depending on the rail line. So if there was a problem on one line that required a replacement, they would go and buy everything new, even though we potentially had a storeroom full of the same part on a different line that the repair team didn’t know about.”
Wanting to simplify its maintenance and repair efforts for the London Underground, TfL consolidated operations to a single asset operations team with a common platform. And based on the success of this initial effort, the organization decided to expand its consolidation efforts above ground, envisioning unified maintenance and repair activities throughout all of its transport modes.
“There’s all of this non-rail stuff we also need to manage—highways, roads, bus shelters, cycle hires, trees, bushes,” notes Nick Hawker, Principal Asset Strategy Manager for Digital Data and Technology at TfL. “And many of these operations—a lot of what’s above ground—are managed through external contractors, who each use their own different systems across their different contracts.”
Ultimately, TfL is responsible for the upkeep of the equipment and materials used to support:
- 402 km of rail
- 427 rail stations (above and below ground)
- 590 km of road
- 675 bus routes
Alongside its general desire for efficiency, TfL was also motivated to find a solution that would help with its sustainability efforts. As Thomas explains: “We have various targets that we have to meet for decarbonization, but most importantly we need to hit net zero by 2040. So as part of the consolidation, we were also trying to achieve improvements in air quality and carbon emission. We needed better information about our assets to predict when they’d fail, as each outage increases our carbon footprint.”
Nets a projected GBP 21 million in savings for the London Underground over a 10-year period
IBM Maximo software supports roughly 10,000 field technicians and numerous third-party maintenance contracts
For the initial consolidation within the London Underground, TfL standardized its support efforts on IBM® Maximo® software under a two-device, one-application strategy. Field personnel now carry either an Apple iPad and an Apple iPhone with them, these devices granting access to the Maximo infrastructure. And from these tools, technicians can pull up work orders, verify safety conditions and obtain directions to their next job site.
But the consolidation work didn’t stop there.
“We began looking at all the different asset management systems that were around TfL to see which ones we could consolidate under Maximo,” explains Thomas. “We started with the management of our highway contracts, which were massive—some around GBP 150 million a year. Then we moved to our technology contracts, our outside maintenance for traffic lights, signage, CCTV [closed-circuit TV], etc. Then to bus stops and shelters—which are all on-street furniture. All those contracts will be run through our Maximo solution.”
“In total, there are around 50 different types of asset groups across all of TfL,” adds Hawker. “We’re probably halfway through getting these into Maximo. But our desire over the forthcoming years is to get everybody using it from the back end.”
Currently, TfL relies on the IBM Maximo platform to manage the day-to-day maintenance efforts for more than 10,000 internal technicians within the London Underground. And above ground, the software enables the tracking, support and oversight of numerous contracts with outside service providers.
“Consider our preventative highway maintenance,” notes Thomas. “Our external contractors will schedule these activities into Maximo monthly. We then look at those plans and sanction them. And when the work order is completed, the completion report is run through Maximo. The payment is approved through Maximo. And then the work and asset data updates can be audited by our inspectors using Maximo. We have everything consolidated under one platform.”
As uniformity begins to take hold of not only processes but associated asset and performance data, TfL is shifting from response-driven management to a more proactive approach—one that will help to boost both performance and sustainability.
“We still have room for growth when it comes to our experience with Maximo,” explains Thomas. “In the next few years, we’re going to explore the health monitoring capabilities and the predictive nature of the data we’re gathering to drive the decisions that we want to make. That’s how we evolve our business to defuse failures before they happen. It’s how we evolve to reach net zero.”
“The data will let us know the impact of our decisions before we make them,” adds Hawker. “And with that knowledge we can avoid wasteful or inefficient choices. It will let us know if we can just carry on doing further maintenance for a piece of equipment or if we should do a renewal or enhancement.”
And by anticipating and resolving potential malfunctions, breaks and outages before they occur, TfL will be able to extend the life of existing equipment, reducing the need for future purchases. At the same time, these public transportation options will run more reliably and seamlessly, keeping commuters happier and helping to shift local traffic to more carbon-efficient alternatives.
By extending the lifecycle of existing assets, reducing the need for replacement parts and limiting the risk of catastrophic failures, TfL anticipates that it will net over GBP 21 million in savings over the next 10 years for just its London Underground responsibilities. And these savings will only grow as the organization’s surface-level operations continue to shift to the Maximo software.
“The consolidated Maximo platform lets us share new ideas—uncover new ways of working and new efficiencies,” adds Thomas. “The out-of-the-box functionality gives us the flexibility to generate new proof of concepts and the speed to act more quickly than we ever have before. It lets us find that perfect synergy between our enterprise data and our performance data to produce smart, informed investment plans alongside smart, informed decisions.”
And these choices, in turn, help drive service improvements for travelers across London—all while capturing new efficiencies and reducing the organization’s carbon footprint. At the same time standardized maintenance operations will also help technicians map out their duties and stay safe while in the field.
“The technology encourages and supports the business to change,” concludes Thomas. “And Maximo offers so much functionality, it’s perfect for helping us as we change how TfL approaches maintenance, safety, supply chains and climate change adaptation.”
Founded in 2000, TfL (link resides outside of ibm.com) is the local government agency responsible for running the day-to-day operations of London’s public transport network and major roads. Presently the organization employs roughly 28,000 workers, and it operates through a network of over 60 subsidiaries, franchisees and licensees.
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