Background

Sydney Trains operates the rail sector of the Transport for NSW cluster. It maintains over 756,000 rail assets, including 1,643km of track, 1,576km of overhead wiring, 2,191 electric and diesel fleet cars, 1,311 bridges, and 308 stations. The organisation manages an annual maintenance budget of $1.2 billion and controls an asset portfolio valued at over $35 billion.

Business Challenge

Sydney Trains conducted a review of its Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) capability in 2014. The review identified major strategic, operational, financial, and safety risks in their existing asset management systems, processes, and practices. The organisation needed to implement a step change in business process and technology to remain competitive, meet customer demand projections, and improve reliability and safety.

Enterprise Asset Management Results

Sydney Trains developed a world-class Enterprise Asset Management capability through their EAM Program, a large and complex initiative. Sydney Trains engaged Combined Management Consultants (CMC) as their strategic partner for the EAM Program. CMC introduced new technology, centralised master data governance, and implemented common processes.

The EAM Program required a capital budget of $273M and ran for 3 years. At its peak, the team mobilized 550 resources to deliver major technological and operational changes. The implementation team phased the rollout to over 7,500 front line staff across 3 releases, aligning the final release with the ERP Program.

CMC provided 3 critical resources initially:

  • A Program Director – who managed all aspects of the program from inception of the business case through program mobilisation, execution, deployment handover and closure.
  • An EAM Program Manager – who designed and delivered the solution and business processes. They also managed Platform and Integration Development, Testing and Data Management.
  • A Business Transformation Change Management – who led the end-to-end communications for the program. This also included business benefits and implementation strategy at all levels of the organisation, including the Board.

CMC implemented the EAM platform in phases, creating a fully digitized, single source of truth portal that will deliver multimillion-dollar benefits over 10 years. The team applied lean management methodologies to optimize efficiency, establish governance, and control the budget.

The CMC team trained all users and led 100 Change Management staff while transitioning 4,500 users from paper to electronic systems.

Key Achievements

The Sydney Trains EAM Program:

  • Mobilized quickly despite strict government regulations.
  • Delivered on time, within scope and budget.
  • Created Business Data Transformation capabilities to manage 25 million records.
  • Implemented a Master Data Strategy with automated MDM workflow tools.
  • Coordinated multiple executive stakeholders across government agencies.
  • Delivered complex technical solutions across multiple programs.
  • Created a Common Operating Model with lean processes.
  • Eliminated 24 legacy systems and standardised 90 business processes.
  • Modernised 25 million records and trained 7,500 users.
  • Developed an Integrated Business Process Architecture.
  • Deployed mobile technology to 5,000 front line staff.
  • Created an Organisational Change Management model.
  • Won the ABA100 2017 Change Management.

CMC continued to support Sydney Trains with experienced consulting resources over 4 years whilst the EAM Program was completed.