What We Do
Products are the core of our business. We know rail materials. In detail. When you order a product from us you know that it comes with full UK approval and accreditation for use on the railway and that approval is regarded as a ‘gold standard’ worldwide.
They say your supply chain is only as strong as its weakest link. They’re right. But it’s not just brute strength that delivers ultimate performance. Innovation and flexibility are essential too - the creativity to meet fresh challenges and the agility to integrate new solutions.
It’s a fine line. On the one hand you want to avoid the expense of redundant assets. At the same time it’s important you avoid sourcing components than can quickly compromise performance.
Our overhaul facilities specialise in breathing new life into a range of more than 5,000 railway materials, from complete bogies to individual relays. Equipment serviced, repaired, refurbished and overhauled as new - warrantied and industry compliant.
A profitable enterprise not only demands the effective ongoing replacement of current or legacy railway equipment, it also relies on high quality and reliable products and components. Products for the future.
True creativity is cultivated, it’s nurtured - a product of creative confidence. The kind of creative confidence that encourages the sharing of ideas, invites partner input and builds strong relationships with leading academic institutions and international research centres.
We have dedicated rail industry expertise and experience in Supply Chain and Lean consultancy. Little wonder that so many of the largest and most respected rail companies in the world turn to us for support that deliver tangible and quantifiable benefits.
What We Do
About
Unipart Rail is a supply partner to some of the world’s best-known names. Our partners know us to be expert in the services we provide – giving them the confidence to pursue their business objectives, while we support them with bespoke solutions.
The Unipart Way is a philosophy of working that is underpinned by a set of tools and techniques that form the basis of our knowledge management system.
We believe that Corporate Responsibility is about doing well by doing good. We understand that this is not simply altruism but commercially sensible and as such it is embedded into everything we do, every day.
The rail industry has many standards and safety controls and we understand that everything needs to conform to ensure safety and interoperability of systems.
The Unipart Group is one of the largest private companies in our sector, employing thousands of people around the world, with an annual turnover of around £1 billion.
UK Productivity is at a standstill. A widening productivity gap exists between the UK and leading advanced economies. How to close this gap is the Productivity Puzzle.
Unipart has an answer to the productivity Puzzle - The Unipart Way.
About
Sectors
We know rail infrastructure. With long experience in Signalling, Level Crossings, P-way, Overhead line, Cable, and all the other infrastructure disciplines.
Unipart Rail is a supply partner to some of the world’s best-known names. Our partners know us to be expert in the services we provide – giving them the confidence to pursue their business objectives, while we support them with bespoke solutions.
Sectors
SERVING THE WORLD'S RAILWAYS
Global
We have dedicated rail industry expertise and experience in supply chain and Lean consultancy. Little wonder that so many of the largest and most respected rail companies in the world turn to us for support that deliver tangible and quantifiable benefits.
We have dedicated rail industry expertise and experience in supply chain and Lean consultancy. Little wonder that so many of the largest and most respected rail companies in the world turn to us for support that deliver tangible and quantifiable benefits.
Unipart Rail is ideally positioned to support the growth in the Middle East Rail sector. Our expertise globally in Rail Infrastructure and Rolling Stock make us the ideal partner for the development of passenger, freight, light and metro projects across the region.
Unipart Rail is ideally positioned to support the growth in the Middle East Rail sector. Our expertise globally in Rail Infrastructure and Rolling Stock make us the ideal partner for the development of passenger, freight, light and metro projects across the region.
Our expertise are not just restricted to our domestic markets. We have a wide range of skills and expertise that can help meet the increasing demand for rail infrastructure and rolling stock. The Unipart Rail approach can be adapted to any language, any culture and any country, as our people know railways!
Global
Product Information
Home / Case Studies / Southern Railway - Performance Through Engagement
Southern - Lean Transformation Project
Reduced Major exam leadtime
Improvement to Wheel
Lathe productivity
The Challenge
The Solution
The Result
Southern manage 157 railway stations from London to the South coast. They provide 2284 services a day delivering 447,000 passenger journeys with a fleet of 295 vehicles.
Southern determined that they needed a structured methodology to improving their business and approached Unipart Expert Practices to support them in their development of this. Through training, coaching and development of their internal capability significant improvements across their fleet activities
would be delivered.
Our approach follows a philosophy of engaging and developing teams in Lean tools and techniques initially through a one week Lean Academy, this provided Southern employees with the knowledge that they would apply during their improvement projects. An experienced Unipart Practitioner then guided and coached the teams to:
- Develop the Leadership team
- Understand current ways of working and identify opportunities for improving the processes
- Develop standard and transparent processes which are key to building the foundation for Southern Railway to continuously improve
- Implement visual management to monitor key performance measures allowing the teams to capture trends, identify issues and take corrective actions
- Build an internal Lean capability including Continuous
- Improvement Managers and Lean Champions. This has provided Southern Railway with the team to continue to develop the Continuous Improvement culture
- Developed a Lean awareness training course that was delivered internally to develop a broad understanding of Lean
- Implement a Communication Centre for the business that enables the team to make key decisions based on real time data, analyse fleet material information, capture issues and drive business improvements
Through training and developing Southern employees a Continuous Improvement structure and capability has been established for the business. This includes Continuous Improvement Managers and Lean Champions who are responsible for continuing to use Lean tools and techniques to improve processes and deliver a continuous improvement culture across the business.
The Unipart standard improvement methodology is
being used across all sites to help drive a standard way of working.
- All of the activity to date has enabled them to achieve:
- The highest ever levels of class 377 fleet availability
- Reduced the number of units out of traffic by 23%
- Reduced Major exam leadtime by 52%
- 100% improvement in wheel lathe productivity
- Optimised material strategy to enable new fleet introduction without the building of a new stores
Customer Comments
“Southern have been for some time wrestling with how to embed a Continuous Improvement culture that would be embraced and run by their own people. In Unipart we have found a partner that are not only experts in implementing Continuous Improvement processes but more importantly wanted to help develop our own capability”
Jim Pinder, Fleet Manager Southern Railway
Case Studies
Northern Rail - Depot Stores Management
Unipart Rail's World Class depot stores facility was operational in less than 3 months, delivering fantastic results including 98% stock accuracy, 97% availability and 50% reduction in defects.
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Northern Rail - Performance Through Engagement
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As a result of the Unipart Rail programme, Northern Rail have produced excellent improvements in reliability and availability. These include 50% reduction in open defects and 46% reduction in time.
MTM - Supply Chain Diagnostics
Metro Trains Melbourne PTY ltd approached Unipart Rail's Expert practitioners to complete a detailed diagnostic across their total supply chain, using their structured and standardised approach.
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Siemens - Performance Through Engagement
Siemens Traincare staff attended Unipart Expert Practices 1 week Lean Academy, to learn how to implement lean tools and techniques within their project. Results include 98% increase in material availability.
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South West Trains- Lean Depot Stores Project
Unipart Rail have increased the efficiency and effectiveness of South West Train's stores, enabling them to improve their service to production and reducing visits to the stores by 54%.
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Southern - Performance Through Engagement
Unipart Rail conducted a strategic review of the spares and storage capacity across all Southern depots Improvements in the layout resulted in an additional 40% storage capacity within the existing footprint.
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Southern - Lean Transformation Project
The Unipart standard improvement methodology is being used across all sites to help drive a standard way of working. Benefits include 100% improvement to Wheel Lathe productivity and a 52% reduction in lead time.
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Eurostar- FlexiKitting Solution
Eurostar required a solution for the supply of materials that would reduce time, procurement activities and storage optimisation. Unipart Rails re-useable kitting system significantly reduced the time taken to complete the overhaul operation.
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First Capital - Code Conversion Unit
The new Unipart Rail Code Conversion Unit has been proven in service to improve reliability, reduce power consumption, reduce mass and reduce potential failure modes.
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Irish Rail - Transforming the Supply Chain
Iarnród Eireann approached Unipart Expert Practices to support the improvement agenda for their Supply Chain. Material availability increased from 85% to 97% and stock accuracy improved from 78% to 98%.
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Southern- FiberProTector Trial
The Fiber ProTector™ product is being implemented by Southern Rail across their entire fleet based on the results achieved, which include a 75% reduction in the time taken to clean vehicles during turnaround operations.
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Yarra Trams - Performance through Engagement
As part of the biggest tram depot redevelopment in Melbourne’s history, Unipart Expert Practices were asked by AECOM to provide support to deliver the objective of integrating Lean principles.
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Siemens - Spares Support Bogie Overhaul
Unipart Rail was awarded a prestigious contract to overhaul 450 Siemens Class 444 bogies over a 13 month period. The output requirement was 10 bogies per week within a 5 day turnaround.
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Unipart Rail's TPWSfour© control units are designed to fit in the same space envelope as the existing TPWS system - reducing the headache of finding additional space for system components.
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Unipart Rail provided the INVER team with hands on support, training and coaching, enabling them to produce excellent results and savings including a cost reduction of 38% as a result of a reduction in man hours.
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The Door Diagnostics Unit (DDU) enables remote monitoring of train doors through the use of inductively coupled telemetry. It is a low cost solution that delivers “health indicators” on the doors that allow effective and targeted interventions to be made.
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Unipart Rail's Track Pan system is being used by ScotRail and Network Rail in Perth on a new carriage wash facility, providing a preventative measure for waste water and other contaminants entering the ballast, without disturbing the track.
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Yarra Trams engaged Unipart Rail to assist in the development of a Corporate Visual Management room at their new integrated head office.
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Unipart Rail 2017