ProRail is a rail operator and takes care of the construction and maintenance of the entire Dutch rail infrastructure. Together with transporters, ProRail is committed 24/7 to ensure that passengers and goods reach their destination safely and on time. ProRail outsources the executive activities to contractors. Projects are commissioned individually, minor maintenance and breakdown repair are bundled in regions and outsourced for five years to maintenance contractors

The task
Recently, ProRail has introduced performance contracts for its maintenance contractors. ProRail has the ambition to have all asset data of a region up to date prior to a new tender. Data improvement projects have been performed for this. These projects had to collect and enrich a lot of data, which did not always benefit the data quality. That is why Mainnovation was asked to come up with recommendations, based on examining the usefulness and necessity of the current data requirement for the processes surrounding asset management and outsourcing within ProRail and the implementation processes by the maintenance contractors.

The approach
Mainnovation has laid the foundation for a plan for improving data quality through data analysis, interviews and workshops with the management team. Through the problem analysis based on VDMXL, the active role of ProRail as manager and outsourcer within the Maintenance & Asset Management chain has become clear. This “Active role in the chain” makes ProRail a hinge point for asset data between project and maintenance contractors and governments. This leads to a very extensive asset data requirement and the accompanying conclusion that the current data requirement is not unrealistically large. An exploration of best practices by infrastructure managers shows that the enrichment of asset data in the future can best be linked to regular activities on assets such as maintenance inspections.

Mainnovation’s added value
A thorough problem analysis plus the insight that data quality improvement requires a sustainable joint effort by both ProRail and its contractors. This does not remain without result, high-quality asset data is expected to improve the efficiency of outsourced processes by 5 to 10%. This is certainly significant on the basis of a total annual order of 1.6 billion euros for construction and maintenance!

high-quality asset data is expected to improve the efficiency of outsourced processes by 5 to 10%.

more cases

  • Due to the improvements in maintenance, RET, was able to win public tender for bus transportation.

  • The project won the IPMA (International Project Management Award) in the public sector.

  • A framework to harmonise maintenance & asset management practices in Keolis' subsidiaries