Benefits of the Design Authority

BMT offers UK railway owners andoperators the benefits of adopting therole of a Design Authority (DA) as apractical means of ensuring effectivelong term control over theconfiguration of their assets.

From the perspective of those thatown, operate or maintain railwayassets, the role of a DA is based onthe four competencies:

Manage design intent for a client'sassets - the 'Know Why of aSystem'

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Retain design records through life -'Retention of Information'

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Validate changes - 'Validation ofTechnical Change'

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Maintain configuration -'Management of ConfigurationLevels’

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These functions are vital if the owneris to be confident that assets aremanaged efficiently and safelythrough life. With sound configurationmanagement, the risk of equipmentfailure is kept to a minimum, through-life operating costs are reduced andowners can be confident ofdemonstrating that they are meetingtheir legal responsibilities when assetsare damaged, disposed of or resold.

Documented records of suitablequality ensure that technicalinvestigations identify the design effortrequired for modifications withoutrepeated surveys or conflicts ofinterest between the parties involved.

Rework is avoided and owners can beconfident that incidents or accidentswill not be attributable to poorprocesses in specification, recordkeeping or change of management.

DA Requirements

The roles of a DA must be clearlydefined to operate in harmony with theowner's business objectives and holdappropriate authority in its dealingswith external organisations.

Special emphasis needs to be placedon interoperability and safety issuessince rolling stock can be owned andleased by several organisationsduring its life.

Some stock may require new routeauthorisations or betransferred toothers.

The monitoring of national andinternational regulations, changemanagement and the recording ofinspections are crucial if hiddenliabilities are not to emerge

BMT Capability

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Hitachi Class 395

BMT has extensive design authorityexperience across maritime, land andaerospace markets. We have both thesystems engineering skills to handlethe most complex asset portfolios andthe operational background tounderstand how DA responsibilitiescan best be put into practice for newand legacy assets.

Tracking the configuration andcondition of new or legacy stockthrough life can be challenging, butBMT has the management experienceto ensure that design records areconsistent with the operational, safety,environmental and commercialinterests of the owner. Many DAfunctions can be contracted out butthe underlying liabilities remain withthe owner and cannot be delegated.

Asset ConfigurationImplementation

The DA can expect to handle largequantities of information that mayrange from the poor quality records oflegacy assets to the modernelectronic data sets that accompanynew stock. Existing records need tobe reviewed and configured for easeof reference within the change controlprocesses being set up for the future.

Record keeping must be supported bydynamic and flexible managementprocesses that are not vulnerable tothe risk of software tools becomingobsolete or subject to proprietaryconstraints.

BMT's service oriented approach willensure that the information technologycan be upgraded at any stage withoutcompromising the delivery of DAservices.

Implementation

BMT prefers to agree with the clienton a structured and visualisedstrategy for implementing the DA'srole before major commitments aremade.

The client is provided with simple andclear processes, using techniquessuch as the Business ProcessModelling Notation (BPMN), thatexplain how the tasks associated withDA functions should be put intopractice.

The interests of key stakeholders areidentified and incorporated from thestart.

Summary

The owners of railway assets haveunavoidable responsibilities that applyto the leasing, operation, transfer andeventual disposal of assets. Theseresponsibilities can only be met in fullif the functions of a DA are in placeand satisfy the need for rigorousdesign records and configurationmanagement.

The benefits of being able to trace thestate of each asset from the originaldesign intent to its latest configurationare significant and enduring.

BMT Reliability Consultants LtdFareham, United KingdomTel: +44 (0) 1489 553100Fax: +44 (0) 1489 553101E-mail: messages@bmtrcl.comWeb: www.bmtrcl.com