Alstom engineers rolled out eviFile on their Barking possession last weekend (Week 44 of the rail calendar) after specifying their data and reporting requirements last December. eviFile was configured for gathering testing and installation data on track utilising tablets during the line closure.
The possession commenced at midnight on Saturday and finished, on time, at 4am on Monday morning as part of the final signalling alterations associated with the new Barking Riverside extension. The planned hour-by-hour schedule from Primavera P6 was imported into eviFile and drove the work on track.
Split into 3 shifts, the 30-hour possession, successfully delivered 34 tests and 20 installation activities. Alstom planners had real time dashboard reporting to track works as they were completed live on site. During the weekend there were a few changes required to timings from the original P6 plan. With eviFile’s import facility the Gantt view in eviFIle, tracking real time progress, was updated in minutes to reflect the latest timings.
Commissioning works were monitored from a portable welfare pod allowing interaction with onsite staff. The dashboards can be viewed with a laptop in a portable welfare pod right through to multi-screen control room allowing planners to work from a remote location.
The Alstom project manager, Alana Davoren, stated “Senior management have access to high level reporting views to give them the information they need to get to quickly. Different report views are available for different roles within Alstom thereby avoiding a lot of unnecessary information having to be drilled through to get the outputs they need.”
Blockade Summary providing instant project status reporting
Input by engineers on the ground is very simple reducing data input and aiding buy-in, thereby saving time and providing accurate tracking of progress. Alstom trained 40 engineers so that everyone could pick up and start using the tablet solution from the get-go.
Troy Mann, eviFile’s Implementation Manager, was on site for the first shift “With eviFile’s bespoke capability, a couple of changes were made to the standard solution live at 2 am on Sunday morning, allowing the exact data movements required for effective possession management”. Speak to one of our team to find out how.
“Previously our engineers spent valuable hours of the possession making telephone calls, sending and receiving text messages, updating paper reports and complex spreadsheets” commented Mick Corner, Field Operations Director at Alstom, “with eviFile, we have seen a huge reduction in time taken up by repetitive tasks – allowing engineers to focus on making important decisions.”
Alstom is working with eviFile’s implementation team to create a standard digital possessions solution which will be used on all possessions across all programmes of work. Easily being able to track works from anywhere, on one central system, demonstrates the clear benefit of removing traditional processes and digitising.
Sabina Abusova, Alana Davoren and Mick Corner in the welfare pod