Research in Brief
Cross-Industry Remote
Condition Monitoring
Programme
T1010
For more information contact:
enquirydesk@rssb.co.uk
March 2016
RSSB l Cross-Industry Remote Condition Monitoring Programme
Aim
The aim of research project T1010 was to overcome the barriers for rail companies to use remote
condition monitoring (RCM) systems across company boundaries (mount equipment on trains
and infrastructure, each to monitor the other).
If rail industry parties use cross-industry RCM effectively there will be improvements in reliability,
availability, maintenance efficiency and safety. The main barriers in doing this include: reaching
an agreement on roles, responsibilities and legal obligations; costs and benefits being accrued by
different parties; and data sharing architectures.
Findings
A set of tools has been delivered for use by parties intending to set up cross-industry RCM
systems:
• Business case tool guidance which enables assessment of RCM options and supports
decisions on how the costs should be divided between organisations by providing visibility of
which parties accrue benefits and costs.
• Template commercial agreements which enable parties to focus on the system specific
information rather than the generic legal principles and framework.
• A specification for a data sharing architecture which facilitates data integration by using
standard open data formats and standard representations of railway assets and operational
data.
• A good practice guide for cross-industry RCM projects which defines a project lifecycle and
when to use the tools described above.
A set of Rail Industry Standards has been proposed as a result of T1010 to provide clear agreed
protocols for automatic vehicle identification, train location service, and weather data.
Impacts and benefits
The Rail Technical Strategy sets out a vision of a railway which is rich with data. Different
organisations would collate, share and collaborate to exploit this data to improve services and
reduce costs, using common data architectures and protocols.
Greater use of cross-industry RCM systems, enabled by the set of tools delivered by this project,
will bring this vision a step closer to reality and deliver tangible cost savings and train performance
improvements.
The tools delivered by this project make these benefits more accessible by significantly reducing
RSSB l Cross-Industry Remote Condition Monitoring Programme
the previously prohibitive time and cost involved in set-up cross-industry RCM systems. It has
been estimated that using the tool can lead to:
• Over 90% reduction in the time and legal costs of reaching a commercial agreement, which
could otherwise cost up to £200,000 per system.
• Up to 90% reduction in system integration costs through use of a common data sharing
architecture, saving £50,000 to £200,000 per system.
• Up to 15% reduction in equipment costs by the adoption of common data protocols which
opens the door to more commercial off-the-shelf products for cross-industry RCM.
Background and method
T1010 was established to respond to the findings of completed research project T986 ‘Crossindustry remote condition monitoring programme phase 1’ which identified a number of barriers
to cross-industry RCM.
T1010 was divided into four parts to address these barriers: data architecture, commercial and
legal framework, good practice guide and business case assessment tool update. The business
case tool was initially trialled by industry consultation to ensure its alignment with industry
needs. The case studies provided confirmation of the validity of the business process maps and
informed the preparation of a set of commercial principles for data collection and sharing.
Where to find out more
The template commercial agreements, good practice guide and business case template are all
available as from the RSSB website or at www.sparkrail.org. Links to particular reports are shown
below:
Template commercial agreements
Report: A templated approach to commercial implementation
http://www.sparkrail.org/Lists/Records/DispForm.aspx?ID=22276
Final report, Appendix D ‘Case study and commercial principles’
http://www.sparkrail.org/Lists/Records/DispForm.aspx?ID=22284
Good practice guide
Good practice guide
http://www.sparkrail.org/Lists/Records/DispForm.aspx?ID=22449
RSSB l Cross-Industry Remote Condition Monitoring Programme
Standards affecting the introduction of cross industry RCM
http://www.sparkrail.org/Lists/Records/DispForm.aspx?ID=22450
Business case
Guidance
http://www.sparkrail.org/Lists/Records/DispForm.aspx?ID=22289
RCM Tool
http://www.sparkrail.org/Lists/Records/DispForm.aspx?ID=22277
These documents can be used to help make the implementation of cross-industry RCM systems
easier and more efficient.
Once developed, the proposed new Rail Industry Standards will be available on
http://www.rssb.co.uk/railway-group-standards .
If you are seeking to adopt a cross-industry RCM solution and would be interested in piloting
these tools, with support from RSSB and the cross-industry RCM Strategy Group, please contact
the RSSB enquiry desk: enquirydesk@rssb.co.uk.
The Cross-Industry RCM Strategy Group is continuing work in this area.
http://www.rssb.co.uk/groups-and-committees/rssb-board/technical-strategy/technicalstrategy-leadership-group/system-interface-committees/vehicle-vehicle-system-interfacecommittee/x-industry-remote-condition-monitoring-group
RSSB l Cross-Industry Remote Condition Monitoring Programme