S.Corneille. Implementation Responsible SNCB NMBS
SNCB-NMBS is the national railway company of Belgium. The site of Salzinnes performs the major maintenance of diesel and electric locomotives, with complete dismantling and revision of all its component parts (electric motors, relays, bogies, axles, diesel engines)
The increase of internal demand and the EU market liberalization of the train maintenance sector in Europe force Salzinnes’ site to improve its productivity in order to meet the coming load growth. The entire site is being redesigned to increase capacity while reducing lead time. Before investing, SNCB-NMBS needs to validate the operational capabilities of the future line while taking efficient decisions.
The bogie section of the plant (the chassis carrying wheels) is crucial in the maintenance flow and was the first focus of our analysis. Moving the bogie hall was the perfect occasion to optimize flows through adopting a cell layout. SIMOGGA Layout in combination with SIMOGGA Planner were used to visualize the future layout and simulate the planning based on parameters such as shifts, lot sizes, operations distribution and finite capacity constraints such as human resources or equipment.
The material produced by SIMOGGA (visualization, quantification and optimizations) was used to communicate and convince decision-makers. The cost of investments has been minimized (including the cancelation of a relocation of a machine and a new investment for ~1Mio€) while maximizing the future line capacity (increased by 150%), removing bottlenecks and decreasing the lead time from 20 to 6,5 days. SNCB-NMBS has validated its operational, financial and logistical choices and is moving forward with a strong understanding of its future operations.
“We shared the same commitment to get operations moving forward.”
Sébastien Corneillie, Implementation Responsible SNCB-NMBS
- Validation of the new layout by the management
- Average lead time reduced from 20 to 6,5 days
- Validation of the new operational organization (shifts, operators, batch, etc.)
- Future increase in load capacity estimated to 150%
- Identification and removal of two bottlenecks
- Up to €1Mio reduction in investments on improvements
- Powerful, flexible planning and scheduling simulation capacities
- Focused approach
- Intensive implication and partnership between SNCB-NMBS and AMIA Systems
- Flexibility and adaptability of SIMOGGA