Overview
Oliver Wyman CAVOK provide operational and technical consulting services around Operations Improvement, Supply Chain, Maintenance Programs and Safety to passenger and freight rail operators.
With our expertise and industry best practice knowledge, using our own proprietary tools we are able to help our clients streamline their internal business processes, incorporate market-leading safety standards and restructure maintenance processes to reap significant business benefit.
We are specialists in all aspects of a rail business from locomotives, rolling stock, rail control systems through to infrastructure management and workshop optimization to enable operational excellence to the core business
We leverage synergies with our aviation and airline practices to build maintenance maturity, enhance safety, quality, and compliance with regulatory requirements, and offer supply chain optimization.
We support clients with software implementations, business process assessment, Entry into Service and operational improvement through our experienced technical specialist and project management teams.
Testimonials
We found Oliver Wyman CAVOK to be much more impactful than other consulting firmsHead of Strategy Global Freight Rail Line
Case Studies
Large Rail-Based Freight Company
Our client, a large rail-based freight company, is focused on rolling stock operations and maintenance for a network of regional freight systems. The client aimed to deliver annual savings through process improvement and operational efficiency, with asset utilization increases. Oliver Wyman CAVOK was engaged to define the improvement opportunities, develop the implementation plan and support the project management of the implementation.
Utilizing our Rapid Assessment diagnostic toolkit, the Oliver Wyman CAVOK team identified potential value improvement opportunities within the business, assessing on-the-ground operations collaboratively with the client team. This assessment identified opportunities in the maintenance program maturity, supply chain and vendor management, materials and maintenance planning, and facility utilization and shop efficiency. Using a co-creative approach, Oliver Wyman and the client developed an implementation plan. Oliver Wyman CAVOK also trained over 100 employees within the business in Continuous Improvement Fundamentals for Leadership, and over 30 Continuous Improvement Champions through a five-day Continuous Improvement Boot Camp.
Process improvement changes, maturing of maintenance management systems and improvement in efficiency due to a continuous improvement focus were the key impact of this program of work. Embedding a continuous improvement culture and mindset will continue to help the client drive further impact across the business.
Over a multi-year program of work, the Client realized over 20% savings in annualized benefits, while delivering utilization and performance improvements across the business.
Passenger Rail Operator
Our client was a passenger rail operator who was in the final stages of procuring a new fleet of trains to replace their current fleet. Oliver Wyman CAVOK was asked to complete a train readiness assessment across the business to assess the status of change management in preparation for the new fleet entering the operation.
The Oliver Wyman team completed an assessment across the business, broken into 3 separate phases, Fleet Delivery – focused on the Rolling Stock production and delivery, Entry into Service – focused on the business preparation for day 1 of operations, and Maintenance and Operations – focused on the transformation management required to deliver new ways of working.
Oliver Wyman CAVOK collaborated with the client to successfully establish an integrated PMO, improve interaction and communication between the train OEM and the client and enable the delivery of a change management program to drive staff engagement. A robust set of contingency plans and risk mitigation actions were also implemented.
Our client was able to successful induct their full fleet of new trains into service with the support and backing of fully operational maintenance depots where they were able to work alongside the OEM on their agreed maintenance arrangements.
Offerings
Operational Improvement
At Oliver Wyman CAVOK, we collaborate with our rail industry customers to make operational improvements across their business leading to improved efficiency and cost management.
We ensure balanced and optimized operational requirements versus maintenance requirements for locomotives and rolling stock ensuring cost-effective operations.
A lack of standardization between depots can lead to reduced productivity and variance in performance.
We have a track record of increasing productivity through clearly defined process optimization, standardized industry best-practice procedures and improvements to production control.
As technology is ever-changing, we support locomotive and rolling stock entry into service, providing PMO and subject matter experts for fleet readiness assessments and ongoing maintenance requirements
We provide insight and implementation support for updating or replacing software solutions for maintenance operations.
We use lean techniques including Hoshin Kanri, Kaizen, and Value Stream Mapping to drive strategic planning, and continuous improvement to ensure goals are developed, communicated and implemented.
Safety and quality management
Oliver Wyman CAVOK assists our clients in setting up Safety Management Systems and completing quality assessments across the rail value chain. Leveraging our aviation safety knowledge and expertise, we are able to develop, implement, and improve safety and quality management programs at our clients.
A safe and profitable operator starts with effective intent-based compliance where the culture delivers superior safety performance.
Safety leadership starts with core safety values and beliefs and maintains a performance-based Safety Management System (SMS), an integrated risk management system that compliments effective compliance using tangible and intangible elements
We incorporate and promote the four pillars of SMS:
- Safety policy and objectives
- Safety risk management
- Safety assurance
- Safety promotion
An established quality management system will complement the safety of an operator and ensure safety is always maintained.
Maintenance programs
Oliver Wyman CAVOK develops and implements enhancements to OEM Maintenance Programs for Rolling Stock, collaborating with our clients to leverage operational and reliability data and machine learning to drive more mature Programs improving costs and maintenance effectiveness.
Cost, performance, and reliability are directly affected by the effectiveness and efficiency and maturity of a maintenance program.
Where maintenance programs are not achieving the desired maturity, costs will increase while performance and reliability will decrease. We utilize industry-leading machine learning tools to analyze and assess maintenance and operational data to optimize maintenance programs
We have successfully adapted proven aviation maintenance and reliability-centered maintenance principles to rail clients to enable data analysis-based maintenance programs to locomotives, rolling stock and ancillary assets and optimize availability
We hold a library of proprietary machine-learning tools to analyze historical maintenance and defect data to provide task effectiveness analysis and recommend optimized maintenance schedules
Our subject matter expert engineers collaborate with client specialists and stakeholders to ensure the output is engineered for success, presenting key deliverables for regulatory approval and adoption into maintenance systems.
Supply Chain Management
At Oliver Wyman CAVOK, our experts in Supply Chain management and optimization have the capability to help our clients enhance supply chain and material management functions, managing costs and increasing delivery performance.
Effective integrated maintenance and inventory management systems track and control components across maintenance, operations and supply chain.
If inventory management is lacking, tracking and control of components is difficult and can result in significant increases in cost, underutilization of assets, and inconsistencies across the operation.
Oliver Wyman can implement standardized vendor management processes. We improve warehouse management set up and processes to improve turnaround times and increase the effectiveness of inventory and stock on hand. We leverage our detailed knowledge of serialization and part tracking to improve component performance management. We can develop and implement leading warranty management programs ensuring cost recovery is maximized.
We map end to end forecast and stock processes to optimize these and enable consistently shorter lead times, improved availability and quality of components with reduced stock held.