The evaluation of E-business related technologies in the Railway Industry

For the purposes of this paper, e-business is defined as: "the performance, automisation and organisation of transactions, or chains of them, and the gathering and publishing of data, electronically over a communication protocol" Little research has been conducted either into how e-business technology can be successfully evaluated, or into the associated costs and benefits specifically related to the transportation and railway industries. Based upon a review of the current literature and a series of interviews held with railway operators, track managers and transportation customers from the Australian Fortune 100, the paper puts forward a framework for the evaluation of e-business investments within the railway industry. The research reported here is aimed at developing a flexible interface that enables the decision maker to assess and evaluate a wide variety of complex interacting variables. The proposed approach uses a variety of evaluation methods, as opposed to searching for a single "best" approach. Additionally, an attempt is being made to include the complex interaction between the implementation of the new technology and the changing organisational setting. A model is proposed using fuzzy logic to handle incomplete and uncertain knowledge; as well as to combine criteria within a conceptual model from which "real-worth" evaluations can be performed. This model provides a systematic approach to guide the decision maker in the deployment of e-business and emerging technologies in the industry. After discussing the main findings from a literature review on the use of evaluation frameworks in IT related projects, the paper deals with the proposed framework in detail. The use of empirical data, which was obtained transportation customers to help define the main framework factors, is also discussed. Finally, the paper summarises the main implications for rail freight of customers’s perceptions and stated needs in the e-business domain

Service-based business models in the Swedish railway industry

Purpose: The purpose is to describe new business opportunities within the Swedish railway industry and to support the development of business models that corresponds with the needs and requirements of Industry 4.0, here denoted as Service Management 4.0. Design/methodology/approach: The study is an in-depth and descriptive case study of the Swedish railway system with specific focus on a railway vehicle maintainer. Public reports, statistics, internal documents, interviews and dialogues forms the basis for the empirical findings. Findings: The article describes the complex business environment of the deregulated Swedish railway industry. Main findings are in the form of identified business opportunities and new business model propositions for one of the key actors, a vehicle maintainer. Originality/value: The article provides valuable understanding of business strategy development within complex business environments and how maintenance related business models could be developed for reaching Service Management 4.0

Technology Assessment and High-Speed Trains: facing the challenge of emergent digital society

The present PhD dissertation addresses the extension of selective environments of new technologies within the high-speed train technological system from business and regulations to the wider society. And, it argues the recognition of society as an actor in that system. Motivating it is the observed ever increase exposure of high-speed trains to public acceptance, caused by empowered society from fast ICT advancements. They refer to digitalization - the rise of social media and big data, combined with the widespread use of mobile technology - changing if not revolutionizing our understanding of product and service selection. Unprecedented societal demands, opening a new market segment, require new technologies to integrate with the emergent digital system. Moreover, societal actors became themselves innovators. Inevitable they have to become part of the value chain widening the collective of stakeholders. However, such raises the dilemma of promotion and control and adds complexity and uncertainty to the industry in deciding which technology to select. Statistical evidence shows that businesses are figuring out ways to embed societal actors in their value creation. In this dissertation, I demonstrate to the high-speed train industry how is it falling short in addressing societal embedding in their product creation and argue why requires improvement. Technology Assessment provides the approach for the orchestration of the necessary dialogue with societal actors for better anticipating potential development in the full system and for embedding the resulting technology options within. By exploiting it to the high-speed train industry innovation strategic management, the aim of my dissertation is, borrowing the words of Douglas K. R. Robinson, to “arrive to a better informed designs of future working worlds, which are structured by theory while empirically well grounded, so they are usable by decision makers”. With this work, I expect to contribute to the new governance structure for research and development set buy the railway industry SHIFT2RAIL (Joint Undertaking for Rail Research and Innovation)

Collaborative urban transportation : Recent advances in theory and practice

We thank the Leibniz Association for sponsoring the Dagstuhl Seminar 16091, at which the work presented here was initiated. We also thank Leena Suhl for her comments on an early version of this work. Finally, we thank the anonymous reviewers for the constructive comments.Peer reviewedPostprin

A principled approach to collaborative knowledge creation in service industries

This thesis describes research carried out to investigate and address the problems associated with knowledge creation through collaboration between diverse stakeholder groups within service industries in the UK. Collaboration is an emerging necessity for organisations and has been influenced by the evolving need for gathering segmented groups with diverse knowledge and experience in developing new solutions to support addressing complex problems in a domain. Use of new technologies, to some extent, assists interaction and collaboration between segregated stakeholders. This approach has been a feasible solution for real-time communication in virtual environment; however, knowledge boundaries in addition to stakeholder boundaries influence the recognition of the problem-related factors affecting different stakeholder groups in a domain and results in conflicts of perspectives and ineffective interaction between stakeholder groups. The origin point of this research was revolved around investigating the limitations of the existing approaches to engaging segregated stakeholder groups in knowledge creation and developing a new approach to address a key service organisation’s complex problem. consequently, this thesis addresses the research question How to reduce the limitations of existing approaches to collaborative knowledge creation in service industries? In doing so, this research brings together literature on the fields of knowledge management empirical evidence to investigate the factors that influence the effectiveness knowledge creation through collaborations between different stakeholder groups. Review of the existing approaches to collaborative knowledge creation and the limitations of each approach shows that the effectiveness of collaborative knowledge creation has not been fully achieved. This resulted in developing, refining and validating a new approach to collaborative knowledge creation by applying it in different service industries. The research has resulted in a number of contributions to knowledge and benefits for the stakeholder groups involved. A key contribution is a development of a new approach to collaborative knowledge creation called Ep-s to emphasise on Effective problem-solving. The applications of Ep-s in the field suggest that it eliminates some of the main deficiencies of well-known approaches to collaborative knowledge creation, and that it brings additional benefits to service industries. However, the research has identified areas where there is significant scope for further research and investigation

Societal embedding in high-speed train technology development: dominant perspective from a case study

The present article is based on the report for the Doctoral Conference of the PhD programme in Technology Assessment, held at FCT-UNL Campus, Monte de Caparica, June 9th, 2011. The PhD thesis has the supervision of Prof. António Moniz (FCT-UNL and ITAS-KIT), and co-supervision of Prof. Manuel Seabra Pereira and Prof. Rosário Macário (both from IST-UTL).The present article posits constructive technology assessment as the dominant perspective of societal embedding practices in the technical development process by the high-speed train manufacturing industry, resulting from a research study conducted in 2011 (Moretto 2011). The article covers the main elements of the study, being the high-speed train manufacturing industry’s strategic intelligence, technology pattern, knowledge exchange, technology trajectories; and finally presents the arguments justifying constructive technology assessment as the dominant approach

Importance and applications of robotic and autonomous systems (RAS) in railway maintenance sector: a review

Maintenance, which is critical for safe, reliable, quality, and cost-effective service, plays a dominant role in the railway industry. Therefore, this paper examines the importance and applications of Robotic and Autonomous Systems (RAS) in railway maintenance. More than 70 research publications, which are either in practice or under investigation describing RAS developments in the railway maintenance, are analysed. It has been found that the majority of RAS developed are for rolling-stock maintenance, followed by railway track maintenance. Further, it has been found that there is growing interest and demand for robotics and autonomous systems in the railway maintenance sector, which is largely due to the increased competition, rapid expansion and ever-increasing expense

Profiting logistics businesses through optimised light rail transit system: Application to the city of Bangkok

The objective of this study was to develop a new method for freight movement in urban areas by combining a light rail transit system and a road transport system to distribute and deliver parcels. Utilisation of light rail transportation systems for parcel delivery can help reduce traffic congestion and air pollution in cities. This paper presents a location–allocation model to determine the optimum number and location of light rail stations suitable to establish rail distribution hubs, in a bid to minimise transportation costs. A case study is conducted to assess this approach in the city of Bangkok. The results show that the cost, time, and distance of transportation can be reduced by 10%, 16.67%, and 33.33%, respectively

Integrating BIM and GIS in railway projects: A critical review

The railway plays a significant role in human life by providing safe, reliable, costeffective services, which are environmental and drive economic growth. Significant decisions are taken at early stage of rail projects which need effective tools to avoid rework and save time, cost and increase work efficiency. Indeed, the continuous upgrading of this sector is needed to respond to technological advances, environmental change and increased customer demands. Integrating Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Geographic Information systems (GIS) is promising since the scope of BIM usually does not extend beyond the footprint of the “building”; it does not provide geospatial data. Therefore, integrating BIM with GIS provides a complete picture of the project. However, this integration is challenging especially in rail projects as they are amongst the most complicated projects and numerous parties are involved in making important decisions. This paper reviews the literature regarding integrating BIM with GIS systematically, with the aim of analysing the need for this integration and its benefits. The paper highlights a lack of a clear guideline for collaboration in the railway project lifecycle and indicates the need for research to focus on this issue as well as the possibility of applying integrated BIM with GIS as a potential solution to improve collaboration for better decision among project participants